When Kyle Whittingham left Utah and headed to Michigan, Sharrieff Shah had a choice to make in a hurry.
The longtime Utah cornerbacks coach was one of the few staffers who stayed in Salt Lake City with new head coach Morgan Scalley, even after Whittingham’s move on Dec. 26 - just five days before Utah’s Las Vegas Bowl matchup with Nebraska. Whittingham’s exit sent the Utes’ staff in two directions, with some coaches following him to Ann Arbor and others sticking with the new regime in Salt Lake City.
Whittingham’s Michigan staff ended up including offensive coordinator Jason Beck, offensive line coach Jim Harding, tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham, receivers coach Micah Simon, quarterbacks coach Koy Detmer Jr., defensive ends coach Lewis Powell and strength and conditioning coach Doug Elisaia. Staying with Scalley were linebackers coach Colton Swan, who was promoted to defensive coordinator, running backs coach Mark Atuaia, defensive tackles coach Luther Elliss and Shah.
For Shah, the decision wasn’t simple. Whittingham had been the man who gave him his start in coaching back in 2012, after Shah graduated from Utah’s law school and worked as an attorney for Siegfried & Jensen.
Shah had played for the Utes in the early ’90s, but he had never coached before joining Whittingham’s staff. Since then, he’s built a reputation as one of Utah’s best recruiters and helped develop Keith McGill, Eric Rowe, Brian Allen, Jaylon Johnson and Clark Phillips III into NFL draft picks.
That kind of track record made him a natural fit for Whittingham’s new staff at Michigan, and the pitch was strong enough to make Shah pause.
“I would not be coaching had it not been for coach Whitt. I wouldn’t be here.
So I will always love Coach Whitt, always, forever has a very special place in my heart. So when he initially left, it was something that I had to consider,” Shah said.
Whittingham kept pressing, but Shah already knew where his heart was leaning.
“I knew where I wanted to be. I know I wanted to be with coach Scalley, but coach has a way of being very persuasive, coach Whitt, he can be very persuasive,” Shah said.
After talking it over with his wife, Jen, Shah decided he wanted to stay and finish what he had started at Utah. That choice was tied to years of conversations with Scalley about the future - long before Scalley officially took over.
Shah said earlier this year that Scalley would often sit in his office and sketch out ideas for the staff he would want if he ever became head coach.
“He would sit with me in my office and say, ‘OK, out of the blue, if you could choose, who would be your offensive coordinator? Who would you like to have at running back coach?’” Shah said of Scalley earlier this year.
Those talks stayed with him as he weighed his next move.
“It was what was in my heart to be with Coach Scalley. We had a lot of plans that we sat in the corner in that defensive room for years, just, ‘Well, if I were this and if I could do that, wishing, and now some of these things are starting to come to fruition, you don’t want to go anywhere,” Shah said. “You want to see if you can make those dreams a reality.”
For Shah, those dreams are tied to winning big - including a national title, something Scalley has openly talked about since his introductory press conference.
“I absolutely love what I believe coach Whitt is going to build, but my home was here. It was with the guy that I was able to cut my teeth with, and on the defensive side of the ball, it’s with the thought and expectation that we want to win in a big way,” Shah said.
“We want to do what Indiana showed everybody that you can do. If you can assemble the right young men, have the right culture, the right mindset, you can do that.
“That’s not a one-off. I think that’s going to become more apparent and more commonplace than people think, especially with what’s happening in college football, what’s been happening, transfers, more good players on virtually every team. So I wanted to be here.”
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