Scalley wraps first fall camp as Utah preps for Idaho
Morgan Scalley closed his first fall camp as Utah's head coach with the offensive line still unsettled and NaQuari Rogers off to the portal, but Devon Dampier and the Utes are ready for Thursday's opener against Idaho.
Scalley's first camp closes with the O-line still up for grabs
Morgan Scalley wrapped his first fall camp as Utah's full-time head coach this week, and by his own account the Utes got through it "injury free for the most part," per the Deseret News. Devon Dampier remains the unquestioned starter and a team captain, with backup Byrd Ficklin working in as what offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven called "a Swiss army knife" who will see time across multiple packages and positions.
The one spot still genuinely open is the offensive line, which returns no starters. Line coach Jordan Gross said the staff is "still working to identify who that first five will be," though he likes ten players capable of playing at a Big 12 level. Scalley himself has been needling the group since — he told reporters that after he called out the offense's red-zone inefficiency, "maybe they got butthurt or something because it's been fantastic since then," the kind of candor that has defined his first camp as he puts his own stamp on a program he spent 18 years building as an assistant.
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The one real jolt of camp news arrived Thursday night, when On3's Pete Nakos reported that running back NaQuari Rogers is entering the transfer portal, with his representative confirming the move. Rogers rushed for 1,598 career yards and 11 touchdowns after transferring in from New Mexico, and he leaves as one of the more productive backs on the roster just days before the opener.
Utah running back NaQuari Rogers is entering the transfer portal, his rep @agentjshields tells @On3. He's rushed for 1,598 career yards and 11 TDs. t.co/wMrfFrcNOy t.co/7SPJyfWsVq
It is not a hole Utah has to fill blind, though. Wayshawn Parker returns as the team's leading rusher and, per Deseret News' portal tracking, is expected to carry the workhorse role in what should still be a run-first offense under McGiven. Losing a proven back a week out is never nothing, but Rogers was never going to be the engine of this offense with Dampier and Parker both back, and Scalley's staff has treated it as a subtraction to manage rather than a crisis to solve.
Last season ended with Scalley's first win as head coach
Utah's last game was also Scalley's first as head coach: a 44-22 win over Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 31 that closed out last season and doubled as his introduction to the job, months before it was made permanent. The Utes finished last season on a five-game win streak, including a 55-28 win at Baylor and a 51-47 shootout over Kansas State, and that Nebraska game is still the last look anybody has at this program before Thursday.
That finish is a big part of the optimism in Salt Lake City despite an offensive line replacing every starter — last season's team closed as one of the hottest in the country, and Scalley inherited a roster that already knew how to win games in November. The record resets to 0-0 for the opener, but the version of Utah that beat Nebraska to end last season is the one the Utes are trying to pick back up against Idaho.
Idaho arrives off a shootout loss, and a lopsided line to match
The opener is Thursday night vs. Idaho, and the Utes will already have tape to work from — the Vandals opened their own season with a 34-38 loss at Cal Poly, the kind of game Scalley flagged as useful scouting when he told reporters, "The good news is they'll be playing on Friday... we'll get a really good peek at that." Idaho enters 0-1, and the line reflects the gap: Utah opened as a 33.5-point favorite with the total set at 56.5.
A number that lopsided says more about the roster gap than the football. Idaho lost a shootout to a Big Sky-level program, and Utah is bringing a Big 12 roster that just finished last season on a five-game win streak. This is the low-stakes, get-well kind of opener a program wants while it sorts out an offensive line and settles into a new coach's rhythms, and Rice-Eccles should be loud enough Thursday to make sure of it.