Morgan Scalley’s first month on the Utah sideline has looked almost unnervingly smooth. Kyle Whittingham’s move to Michigan, on the other hand, has blown up into the kind of mess that has people talking about a coaching change before October is even done.
That contrast is what makes this story so strange. Whittingham once coached Scalley as a player, then handed him his first coaching job without realizing he was also setting up the man who would eventually replace him 20 years later. Their split turned bitter, and now the two are leading programs from opposite sides of the country, 1,500 miles apart and heading in very different directions.
Utah is 4-0, ranked 12th and in the mix for a Big 12 title. Michigan sits at 3-2, unranked, and probably should be 2-3 after the Western Michigan game in which the Wolverines were wrongly given an extra play before a “winning” touchdown after time had expired. The NCAA agreed there was an error but said there was no way to overturn the result.
Utah’s schedule has been soft - Idaho, Arkansas, Utah State and Iowa State - and the real tests are still ahead against No. 22 Houston and No.
8 BYU. But even with that caveat, Scalley has kept the Utes on track while the rest of the sport is starting to notice.
This week, six college football reporters made early predictions, and three of them picked Utah to reach the College Football Playoff.
Michigan’s road looks far more brutal. The Wolverines still have No.
7 Indiana, No. 13 Oregon, No.
21 UCLA and No. 5 Ohio State on the slate, plus Penn State this week in what amounts to a must-win for Whittingham.
And that’s before you even get to the fact that the season already feels like it’s slipping away.
At the start of the year, Utah looked like the shakier operation. Whittingham took five Ute assistants and four star players with him to Michigan, and Utah had to rebuild almost everything at once: a new head coach, offensive coordinator, quarterback coach, offensive line coach, tight ends coach, wide receivers coach, defensive coordinator and safeties coach. Instead of wobbling, the Utes have been steady.
Michigan has not been.
The Wolverines’ staff includes six coaches from last year’s Utah group, along with defensive coordinator Jay Hill, who coached under Whittingham at Utah before going to BYU in 2023. That continuity was supposed to help.
So was the talent Whittingham brought with him. John Henry Daley has 16 tackles, six solo, with three sacks and 4½ tackles for loss.
Jonah Lea’ea has 10 tackles. JJ Buchanan leads the team with 24 catches for 446 yards and four touchdowns.
Smith Snowden has 12 solo tackles and an interception.
None of that has stopped the slide. The noise around Whittingham started almost immediately and has only gotten louder, with fans already calling for his job.
Michigan is college football royalty, and patience there runs thin. The Wolverines beat No.
11 Oklahoma, but that has been buried by losses to Iowa and Minnesota. The defeat to Minnesota was Michigan’s first in 12 years against the Gophers, and the two conference losses out of the gate have the season headed in the wrong direction fast.
Urban Meyer didn’t exactly soften the diagnosis.
“It’s a train wreck right now,” says former Utah/Florida/Ohio State coach Urban Meyer.
The quarterback situation has become the clearest symbol of the problem. Whittingham should have pursued Devon Dampier, Utah’s veteran quarterback, when he raided the Utes’ roster.
Instead, Michigan is tied to Bryce Underwood, the nation’s No. 1 prep recruit in 2025 and a player who arrived with a $12.5 million NIL deal. He has averaged just 176 yards per game passing, and the case for sticking with him is getting harder by the week.
Eric Weddle saw this coming while watching Michigan practice last spring.
“Don’t be surprised if the backup’s playing early because that Underwood kid, I don’t think he can throw or play quarterback.” In a subsequent interview, he doubled down on his comments, saying, “Prove me wrong.”
Whittingham has often had quarterback issues, but this one is especially thorny because he inherited Underwood and now may have to bench his $12 million quarterback. Michigan’s offense is 17th out of 18 Big Ten teams and 88th nationally. The Wolverines are averaging 23 points per game, or 17.5 if you remove the 52-point outburst against lowly UTEP.
The rankings tell the story as plainly as anything else. Utah has climbed from 15th to 13th to 12th. Michigan has dropped from 18th to “others receiving votes” to nowhere at all.
And so the Whittingham-Scalley drama rolls on, with one side looking like a clean handoff and the other looking like a wreck.
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Utah Heads Into Kansas With A Big Edge Fans Will Notice
Utah heads into Kansas game week in solid shape health-wise, which is exactly the kind of development a team wants this time of year. The Utes are carrying a mostly healthy roster into the matchup, with tight end Kanai Lopes and offensive lineman Isaiah Garcia the only players ruled out, while defensive lineman Karson Kaufusi and tight end Semi Taulanga are still listed as questionable.
Kansas, meanwhile, is dealing with a much longer availability list, and that gap could matter once the game starts taking shape. The Jayhawks have nine players listed out, including backup quarterback Cole Ballard, and several more are hovering in doubtful or questionable territory, giving Utah a noticeable edge in the kind of depth that can become a factor late in the week. [Read more 🡒]
Utah Fans Will Love Whats Finally Happening In The MUSS
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Theres another ripple effect, too, and it reaches beyond the football stadium. Students who support other Utah sports now have a better path to improve their chances for football tickets, which has helped raise engagement across campus athletics and given the program another way to keep students connected even before kickoff arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Utahs New Backcourt Just Gave Fans A Reason To Pay Attention
Utahs exhibition win over UNLV offered an early glimpse of what this roster might look like once the games start counting, and the backcourt was at the center of it. Trey Campbell, who was recently granted eligibility after a legal battle with the NCAA, led the way with 17 points as the Utes showed the kind of guard play and defensive effort that can make a team hard to deal with in November.
The broader takeaway for Utah was the depth of the performance, not just the final 79-69 score. Eleven players saw the floor, nine logged double-digit minutes and the rotation already looked engaged on the defensive end, which gives the Utes something to build on as they keep sorting out roles. For a team looking for stability in the backcourt, this was at least a promising first read. [Read more 🡒]