‘I’m just trying to be a disciple’: Morgan Scalley opens up about Latter-day Saint faith

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When BYU coach Kalani Sitake gets a FaceTime call from Morgan Scalley, it usually means that the Utah coach is with a Cougar fan at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints event.

After one address to a Young Men’s group, the attendees gathered around Scalley for a photo, with the majority of the group flashing the “U” hand sign.

One BYU fan flashed the “Y” sign for the group photo and received some good-natured ribbing from the Utah fans. Scalley used the moment to make the fan’s day.

“I just said, ‘Dude, you got to support your team. You got to be loyal to your team.’ Obviously I have a great relationship with Kalani and wanted him not to feel outed or not a part of the group,” Scalley said. “So I do that more often than people would think. So I think Kalani knows anytime he’s getting a FaceTime from me, I’m with a BYU fan.”

There’s few who bleed red more than Scalley. He’s a lifelong Ute that went to games at Rice-Eccles Stadium as a kid before starring at safety for Utah’s BCS-busting undefeated 2004 team — a dream season that was punctuated with a 35-7 win over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.

After ending his playing career on the highest note in program history to that point, he jumped right into coaching, and there was no place he would rather coach at than Utah.

“This is a profession that allows you to be a light to others, allows you to teach and guide and be an influence on young men, particularly at an age where they’re asking themselves a lot of questions,” Scalley said.

Coaching came naturally to Scalley, who was heralded as a leader and was named a captain on the 2004 team, and he quickly moved up the ranks from graduate assistant to safeties coach.

Scalley took over the safeties room as Derrick Odum left ahead of the 2008 season (Odum is back as Utah’s safeties coach under Scalley this season in a full-circle moment). Four years after he helped lead the Utes to a perfect season as a player, he was on staff as the Utes completed a 13-0 campaign, capped off by a 31-17 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

Aside from consistently producing quality safety units, Scalley impressed as a recruiter, and Utah coach Kyle Whittingham knew his former player would one day make a good defensive coordinator.

“I’m grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ — not ashamed to say that — whose sacrifice for me has led me in this direction. Didn’t know that I really wanted to get into coaching and so I’ve led my life based on the belief that he will lead me. He will guide me. And based on the Spirit, it has brought me to this place where I can give and serve and love.”

Morgan Scalley at his introductory press conference

After John Pease retired in 2016, Scalley was promoted to defensive coordinator, starting a run of consistent success for Utah’s defense.

In the 10 years since Scalley took over the defense, the Utes have been ranked in the Top 25 nationally in fewest points allowed per game five times, including 2025. Defense was always Whittingham’s hallmark as a coach, and Scalley made sure that Utah’s defense remained tough, physical, and — for the most part — dominant, year in and year out.

With Scalley as its defensive coordinator, Utah made four Pac-12 championship games and won two of them — a high-water mark for the program. He sent 33 defensive players to the NFL and became so highly respected in the college football community that he received interest from Texas, Oregon, Florida and USC to coach their defenses, per a 2024 report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Through it all, he remained loyal to Utah. For its part, Whittingham and the Utes named him the head-coach-in-waiting to keep him around, but Scalley always wanted to see it through at Utah and one day take the reins of the program.

“I’m one of you. All of you that are sitting in here that went through the same thing, I’m a fan. I’m a Ute. Have been, forever will be,” Scalley said.

In December 2025, when Whittingham “stepped down” as Utah’s head coach after a 21-year run that saw him lead the Utes to new heights as a program, athletic director Mark Harlan wasted little time putting Utah’s plan in place, hiring Scalley as the school’s head coach the next day.

What followed was a whirlwind, as Whittingham was hired to be Michigan’s new head coach on the day after Christmas following Sherrone Moore’s firing. Suddenly, Scalley was thrust into the head coaching role early and was charged with keeping the team focused amid the coaching change as they prepared for the Las Vegas Bowl.

The team responded, defeating Nebraska 44-22 on New Year’s Eve for Utah’s first bowl victory since 2017.

In the midst of it all, Scalley had to hire six new coaches after some of the previous staff, including offensive coordinator Jason Beck, went to Michigan and had to play defense in the transfer portal.

Sharing his faith with others

A week after his first victory as Utah’s head coach, amid all of the offseason craziness, Scalley took the podium in the south end zone club at Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of a packed room of family members, players, Utah fans and donors, and the media for his introductory press conference.

There was a lot to talk about, but within the first minute of his off-the-cuff remarks, Scalley took time to talk about his faith.

“I’m grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ — not ashamed to say that — whose sacrifice for me has led me in this direction. Didn’t know that I really wanted to get into coaching and so I’ve led my life based on the belief that he will lead me. He will guide me. And based on the Spirit, it has brought me to this place where I can give and serve and love. So I’m grateful for this opportunity,” Scalley said.

Since taking over as Utah’s head coach, and even before, Scalley has not been shy about sharing his faith in Jesus Christ and his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He wants to share the joy that the gospel and his faith in Jesus Christ have brought him with others, and is in a position to do so as the head coach of a Power Four college football team.

“Why is it important to share my faith with others? Because my faith is important to me and it’s something that brings me joy,” Scalley said. “I think with anything, if you enjoy something, it’s like my daughter with a song. She wants me to like her songs. Whether it’s a movie and she wants to see all my reactions when I’m sitting in a movie, it’s no different with faith. Anything that brings me happiness, brings me joy, that I think can bring other people joy, I want to be able to share it.”

Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has impacted just about every aspect of Scalley’s life.

“It affects everything from what I eat and drink to the shows I watch, the music I listen to, who I chose to be my partner in marriage and how I treat other people. It does. It affects every aspect of my life,” Scalley said.

‘An extremely important decision’ to serve a mission

One of the biggest decisions in Scalley’s young life was his choice to serve a two-year church mission. Young Latter-day Saint men and women are encouraged to serve 18- to 24-month missions, where they spread the gospel all over the world.

“Serving a mission was an extremely important decision. My brother had served, my sister had served, but that didn’t mean I was going to serve. I really gained a testimony of Jesus Christ fairly early in my life and felt like I needed to serve.”

Utah coach Morgan Scalley

After becoming the first-ever recipient of the Deseret News’ high school Mr. Football award, Scalley, one of the top recruits in the state of Utah, committed to play for Ron McBride and the Utes after graduating from Highland High in 1998.

Despite the allure of playing for his dream school right away, Scalley put his life on pause for two years to serve a church mission in Munich, Germany.

“Serving a mission was an extremely important decision. My brother had served, my sister had served, but that didn’t mean I was going to serve,” Scalley said. “I really gained a testimony of Jesus Christ fairly early in my life and felt like I needed to serve.”

Through his mission in Munich, Scalley made an impact on people there, but those that he served also made an impact on him. Scalley took his family to visit Munich last summer.

As fate would have it, the two-year gap also paid dividends on the football field, as Scalley’s senior year was 2004, when he was a key part of Utah’s 12-0, BCS-busting season.

How faith ties into Utah’s program

Due to its location in the state that has the largest percentage of Latter-day Saint members in the nation, there has always been more Latter-day Saint representation on Utah’s team than just about any other football team in the country, aside from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-sponsored BYU.

That gives Scalley an instant connection with Latter-day Saint players and recruits, and some of those players feel like they can grow spiritually at Utah, including four-star wide receiver recruit Blake Wong, who has Utah and BYU in his final list.

Wong told Steve Bartle of KSL Sports that Utah was a place where the “gospel is very important.”

“I had visits around the school and there’s programs at the school that can help you talk to others and build your relationship in Christ. Not only that, Scalley and the coaches that are LDS, who even aren’t LDS, are very good representatives of Christ and they all act a way and they all carry themselves in really good ways,” Wong told the Deseret News.

“Obviously, they’ll have their studies as groups and stuff like that, but I feel like the most important thing is the way that they act and the way they carry themselves and they all carry themselves in good ways and Christ-centered lives.”

For Latter-day Saint members, and those curious about the faith, there are Institute classes available at the University of Utah, which help young adults “strengthen their testimony of Jesus Christ, increase their scripture study skills, learn from others and through the Spirit, and be better prepared for their futures,” according to the church’s website.

Utah’s football program also has an optional, nondenominational Bible study twice a week.

Football locker rooms are some of the most diverse places America has to offer, and that extends to faith.

There are plenty of Christians on Utah’s team, but there are people of all faiths — and no faith — on the team.

Each new Utah player — and there are always a lot of them in the transfer portal era — gives a short presentation about themselves to help introduce them to the team. The first slide is about their family, and the second is about what makes them them.

“Invariably, you’ll see a picture of Christ or a picture of any faith-based organization, whether it be a sign, a symbol, whatever helps us know about their faith and that that’s important to them,” Scalley said. “We have so many young men on this team with such strong faith regardless of what denomination.”

Making sure those with faith feel supported and able to grow in their faith while playing football at Utah is an important part of how Scalley runs his program.

“I think it’s very important for parents in the recruiting process to know that your sons are going to be developed spiritually here. They’re going to be supported in whatever faith they have, even if they don’t believe in God. We want to be empathetic and supportive of everyone’s faith and allow them to practice how they feel,” Scalley said.

That melting pot of various faiths was a key part of Scalley’s experience as a player two decades ago, allowing him to not only feel supported in his own religion, but to learn from those of other faiths.

That experience is still ongoing for Scalley as he learns from not just the players in Utah’s program, but staff members as well.

“My best friend here at the University of Utah is Sharrieff Shah, who is a devout Muslim, and I’ve learned so much from him about his faith, about his devotion,” Scalley said. “Life’s not lived in a bubble where everyone thinks the same way, has the same thoughts. And my experience here at the U. allowed me really to see different perspectives, learn about how people were raised differently within their faith.”

‘I’m just trying to be a disciple’

As a prominent Latter-day Saint member, Scalley is often asked to give talks at Latter-day Saint fireside events, which are evenings outside of normal church service where members can gather to hear inspiring messages.

While some attendees are no doubt interested because of Scalley’s position as a Utah football coach, when Scalley walks into the church, he’s no longer “coach Scalley” but “Brother Scalley.”

“This is just a normal guy talking about how I struggle, how I hurt, how I gain strength through faith,” Scalley said. “I think every one of us struggles with something, or if we don’t, our family is struggling with something. Faith brings us together to help heal and bind and strengthen each other because we’re all in need of redemption.”

While Scalley is open about his faith and will answer any and all questions about what, and why, he believes what he does, he isn’t trying to convert the players on the team.

Simply put, he tries to live his life as an example of the joy that his faith brings him.

“My main deal is that my life, I think Gandhi said, ‘My life is a message.’ That’s how I try and lead my life. That if anyone has a question as to why I believe the way I do, why am I so happy — not that I’m happy all the time — but what brings me joy, I’m able to answer them and help them understand my why.”

“And a lot of the big part of my why is my faith in Jesus Christ.”

Scalley is not a perfect person — no one is — but he tries to be a disciple of Jesus Christ each and every day.

“I do not claim to be the man, the disciple,” he says. “I’m just trying to be a disciple. I’m just trying to live my life so that when people meet me, they know how important my faith is to me.”

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