Utah routs Idaho 66-14 in Scalley's coaching debut
Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin combined for 5 touchdown passes and Wayshawn Parker scored 3 times as Morgan Scalley's coaching debut turned into a 66-14 win over Idaho.
Scalley's first game at Rice-Eccles never got interesting
Idaho quarterback Joshua Wood was intercepted on the third play from scrimmage, Utah led 31-7 by halftime, and the only real question by the fourth quarter was how many reserves Morgan Scalley could get onto the field. Utah finished with 633 yards of total offense against 225 for Idaho, according to the Deseret News, and the 66-14 final is about as clean a debut as a first-year head coach could draw up.
Idaho66-14The interesting part was how Utah got there. Offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven played both quarterbacks, and both delivered: Devon Dampier went 13 of 18 for 176 yards and 3 touchdowns before the break, then Byrd Ficklin followed with 93 yards and 2 more scores through the air, plus 70 yards on the ground, capped by an on-the-run completion to Mana Carvalho for 23 yards while rolling right, per the Deseret News. That is quarterback depth most Big 12 rooms do not have, and Scalley spent the opener using every bit of it.
Last night’s 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 comes from @bradenpegan 7 yard TD reception from @Devonddampier‼️ 📺 ESPNU #GoUtes | #RSNB | @FellerandWendt
The blowout margin left room for the moments a fan actually remembers a week later: true freshman Lamarcus Bell punched in a touchdown of his own, and Chavez scored his first as a Ute to open his account in Salt Lake City. The program's own account tagged Braden Pegan's 7-yard touchdown catch from Dampier as the night's Drive of the Game, which tells you how far down the box score you had to go to find the best individual moment.
The rebuilt offensive line got its first real grade, and passed
Scalley closed fall camp naming a captains' group — Dampier, Wayshawn Parker, Alex Harrison, Jonathan Hall, Trey Reynolds and Nate Ritchie — built around a line room that had lost all five starters and still hadn't settled on a five heading into the opener. Against Idaho, the new starting group of Zereoue Williams, Solatoa Moea'i, Harrison, Roger Alderman and Cedric Jefferson didn't allow a sack and generated real push, which Scalley credited afterward: "Good offensive line units finish plays, and so they're pushing guys, they're running down the field, pushing the pile," he told the Deseret News.
The defensive front didn't have as clean a night — just 1 sack and 4 tackles for loss, and Idaho's more experienced offensive line found room for one legitimate 13-play scoring drive. Scalley wasn't panicked about it: "I do feel like sacks are great, but hitting the quarterback is what you're really after, and I thought we did a pretty good job making life uncomfortable for him," he said, adding he'd review the tape before passing judgment on the backup tackles. Idaho was never going to be the real test for either line — Arkansas, in 8 days, is.
Wayshawn Parker made the Rogers question disappear in one half
The one real jolt of fall camp came a week before kickoff, when running back NaQuari Rogers entered the transfer portal. Rogers rushed for 1,598 career yards and 11 touchdowns after transferring in from New Mexico, and his representative confirmed the move to On3's Pete Nakos — an odd subtraction for a program that had spent the offseason building out that room.
Parker made it look like a non-issue. The captain scored 3 total touchdowns — two receiving, one rushing — for 53 rushing yards and 23 receiving yards, all before halftime and on limited snaps, exactly the workhorse role Kevin McGiven's run-first offense was built to hand him. Whatever Rogers's exit cost the depth chart, it didn't cost the offense a beat against Idaho, and Parker didn't need a second half to make the point.
Two rookie head coaches, one Rice-Eccles crowd, 9 days out
Utah is home on September 12 vs. Arkansas, and it is arriving as a favorite against a program mid-rebuild: the Razorbacks finished last season 17-31 in a loss to Missouri and are 0-0 under brand-new head coach Ryan Silverfield, who is making his own Arkansas debut this week against North Alabama. Scalley has been looking forward to this one since Big 12 Media Days: "Anytime you can get an SEC program to come to Rice-Eccles Stadium, to come to the University of Utah, you're pretty fired up about it," he said. "We can't wait to welcome them to Salt Lake City. Our stadium, our atmosphere is absolutely incredible."
The line opened at Utah -9.5 with the total set at 54.5, numbers that price Utah as a real but not overwhelming favorite over a roster Silverfield is still rebuilding on the fly. Yahoo Sports has reported that offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven is expected to keep his install fairly vanilla against Idaho-caliber competition specifically to avoid tipping his hand before the Arkansas trip to Rice-Eccles — a two-quarterback offense with this much in reserve does not need to show all of it in Week 1.