Utah

2-0AP #17
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Utah Sues Freddie Whittingham Over Contract Breach After Joining Brother at Michiganour readEric Weddle Named to Utah Football Ring of Honorour readThe BYU rivalry

Big 12 · Morgan Scalley, year 2 (3-0) · Rice-Eccles Stadium · 51,444 · 51,488 avg in 2026

The nationAP #17 · Coaches #17up 3 from last week
The model#30 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #21 (+13.0) · FPI #19
The marketUtah by 28vs Utah State · our model 78% Utah · a number, not a pick

LastW 43–10 vs Arkansas · Sat Sep 12 · Devon Dampier 261 pass yds, 2 TD, 1 INT

Nextvs Utah State · Sat Sep 19 · 3:30 pm ET · Rice-Eccles Stadium · Utah by 28 · series 73-28-4, won the last 3 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist staturePower Program II#39 all-time– holding
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 102-48 12 seasons
Best season 11-2 2025
Top-10 finishes 2 AP polled only
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 9-4 '15 10-3 '16 9-4 '17 7-6 '18 9-5 '19 11-3 '20 — '21 10-3 '22 10-4 '23 8-5 '24 5-7 '25 11-2

Utah's 2014–2025 record is 102-48. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.680
Ranked seasons (AP)
12/12
Best AP finish
#7
THE RIVALRY · UTAH × BYU

Holy War

97 meetings since 1922 See the whole history →
ALL-TIME 59-34-4 since 1922 · .608 win rate
STREAK L3 Byu holds the last 3
TROPHY The Rivalry Itself No trophy — the season is the argument
NEXT 2026 season date set by conference
Heat trajectory

Week-by-week rivalry heat isn't tracked yet for this matchup — check back as the 2026-27 season approaches and real fan-intel signal accumulates.

Fan Heat Index

Who's more worked up right now

Cross-fanbase rivalry sentiment for this matchup hasn't been measured yet this week — both sides show as neutral until real signal comes in.

Utah
Awaiting
Byu
Awaiting
Utah —
Byu —

THE LAST 5 · year-by-year

  1. L 2025 Loss 21–24
  2. L 2024 Loss 21–22
  3. L 2021 Loss 17–26
  4. W 2019 Win 30–12
  5. W 2018 Win 35–27

Program outlook

Kyle Whittingham built Utah into a program that out-toughed every conference it entered — 21 years, the 2008 Sugar Bowl over Alabama, back-to-back Pac-12 titles. Then he left for Michigan. The question on the Wasatch is whether the culture goes with the man.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Utah's identity was never recruitingly constructed. Urban Meyer's 2004 undefeated team, Whittingham's 2008 team that blew out Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, the 2021-2022 Pac-12 championships — the through-line is toughness, defensive discipline, and the specific institutional advantage of a program that genuinely did not care what the rankings said about it. The Utes walked into every league they joined and won it. The Mighty Utah Student Section at Rice-Eccles is one of the genuinely loud environments in the sport. The Block U on the Wasatch mountainside watches the games from above. None of that is borrowed culture.

Whittingham left in December 2025, after a 44-21 Las Vegas Bowl win over Nebraska that capped an 11-2 season. He didn't retire — he went to Michigan, a bigger job, which is a different kind of departure. Utah promoted Morgan Scalley, a 20-year program staffer and defensive coordinator, to replace him. The internal fracture is quiet but real: the faction that trusts the culture is in the building, not the man, against the faction that watched 21 years of a single coach's operating system leave in a car to Ann Arbor.

Devon Dampier returns at quarterback after an All-Big 12 2025. The schedule lands in the Big 12, where Utah has been since 2024. The 2026 season will answer the culture question — not definitively, but empirically. Scalley's Utah will either look like the program Whittingham built or it will look like a transition. The Utes have given the rest of the country no reason to expect a transition.

On the field

Wasatch grit is a real scheme: Whittingham's Utah ran a physical, defense-first, special-teams-obsessed system that prioritized winning the line of scrimmage over winning the recruiting rankings. Scalley inherits the defensive coordinator role as his own strength, and Devon Dampier provides continuity at QB with a quick-read spread attack that complements the run game. The 2026 identity question is whether the team stays physical enough at the point of attack to out-tough Big 12 opponents the way it out-toughed Pac-12 opponents — the same bet, new environment.

program outlook · as of 2026-06-14

All-time record · Utah

Utah has won 58% of its games since 1900 — 68% at home, 47% on the road.

708-475-31 all-time · 125 seasons · 1900–2026

Home 422-186-14
Away 266-278-17
Neutral 20-11
55% 1900s
59% 1910s
64% 1920s
69% 1930s
60% 1940s
53% 1950s
52% 1960s
40% 1970s
47% 1980s
61% 1990s
70% 2000s
64% 2010s
67% 2020s

Coaching Era · Utah

Morgan Scalley

Morgan Scalley took over from Kyle Whittingham for the 2026 season.

Era Morgan Scalley · 2026–presentPrev: Kyle Whittingham (2014–2025)OC: Kevin McGivenPrev OC: Jason Beck (2025)DC: Colton SwanPrev DC: Morgan Scalley (2016–2025)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
1 year · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

2009

The Sugar Bowl over Alabama

Whittingham's 13-0 Utes blow out Alabama to finish undefeated

2022

Back-to-back Pac-12 titles

Utah wins the conference it was told it didn't belong in — twice

2025

Whittingham to Michigan

After 21 years, the program's defining coach leaves for a bigger job

Wound

Moment of the season — so far · Utah · 2026

Won 66-14 vs Idaho

Week 1 of 2026. A statement margin. Recruiting boards re-rendered overnight.

Decisive Margin

NFL Draft Pipeline

2022–2026

Utah has sent 13 players to the NFL Draft since 2022 — 4 of them in the first round.

Steady. Reliable mid-tier pipeline.

13 picks · 4 in round 1
#9 Spencer Fano Offensive Tackle · 2026 · Cleveland
#25 Dalton Kincaid Tight End · 2023 · Buffalo · #3/132 final season
#27 Devin Lloyd Inside Linebacker · 2022 · Jacksonville · #240/578 final season
#53 all-time · 12 first-round picksthe talent factory →

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 2-0 · AP #17

Utah is ranked 17th (AP) at 2-0.

Ranked in the AP/Coaches polls, 16-25. National relevance achieved.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Morgan Scalley2025
  • Kyle Whittingham departs177-88, 22 seasons
  • Hired Kyle Whittingham2004
  • Urban Meyer departs22-2, 2 seasons
  • Hired Urban Meyer2003
  • Ron McBride departs88-63, 13 seasons
  • Hired Ron McBride1990
  • Jim Fassel departs25-33, 5 seasons
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Utah’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014 · Dave Christensen2015–2016 · co-Aaron Roderick / co-Jim Harding2017–2018 · Troy Taylor2019–2024 · Andy Ludwig2025 · Jason Beck2026 · Kevin McGiven
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014 · Kalani Sitake2015 · John Pease2016–2025 · Morgan Scalley2026 · Colton Swan
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Mighty Utah Student Section (MUSS)

since 2003

more

The MUSS, founded 2003, is the most-organized student section in CFB — choreographed call-and-response, sustained third-down noise, the 'Utah Man' fight song full-volume. Visiting QBs cite it as the loudest student section in the Mountain West and Pac-12 they faced.

Block U Hike

since 1907

more

The whitewashed concrete 'U' on the foothills above Salt Lake City. Students hike up before big games; the post-game tradition of repainting it after wins predates the program's modern peak.

Holy War vs BYU

since 1896

more

Utah-BYU has the most religious-cultural weight of any CFB rivalry. The state-pride stakes, the LDS-vs-secular framing, the trophy (the Beehive Boot rotation), 130+ year history. Suspended 2014-2023 by conference geography; resumed via Big 12 (2024).

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2014-2025): 5-5

Most recent: 2025 — win 44-22 (home). Last 5 postseason: 1-4.

20252023202220212019
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

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