Kevin McGiven’s offense causing fits for defenses. And former defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley likes it

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As now-former defensive coordinator, Morgan Scalley is well aware of what constitutes a great offense.

That knowledge informed his decision to select an offensive coordinator when he was elevated to head coach at Utah. During his coaching journey from safeties coach to defensive coordinator to head coach, Scalley kept names of potential staff members in a notebook to refer to when he eventually became head coach at Utah.

One of those names was Kevin McGiven, who most recently was the offensive coordinator at Utah State with Bronco Mendenhall before heading south to Salt Lake City.

It’s still early, and Utah hasn’t hit conference play yet, but through two games, McGiven has produced a fun, creative and effective offense.

The Utes are averaging a whopping 54.5 points and 537.5 yards per game. Those stats are inflated by a 66-14 win over Idaho, but against an Arkansas team with a much better defense than the Vandals, Utah still put up 442 yards and 43 points in a blowout win.

Last year’s Jason Beck-called offense was very effective — Utah averaged 41.3 points per game and 482.9 yards per game behind a dominant offensive line and rushing attack — but McGiven has taken the creativity up a notch through his first two games.

McGiven has a deep playbook, and as a result, hasn’t felt the need to hold some of his more interesting plays back during the nonconference slate.

The Utes opened the Arkansas win with a double pass. Quarterback Devon Dampier threw it 5 yards back to fellow QB Byrd Ficklin, who uncorked a 36-yard pass from the left sideline to running back Wayshawn Parker on the right sideline.

Utah cookin' up in the playbook 🔥

Ficklin with a 36yd pass to Parker !!

📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/lgj9HJ6l4i

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) September 13, 2026

From there, McGiven kept Arkansas’ defense on its toes with a variety of interesting play calls. Ficklin was heavily involved in the first half, whether that was catching a pass from Dampier, taking a pitch from Dampier, or — in one of the highlights of the game — a Ficklin handoff to Dampier, who pitched it back to him for a first down.

I LOVE Utah’s 2-QB Package pic.twitter.com/yodwtxVuJW

— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) September 13, 2026

There were interesting formations, like one with Ficklin, Daniel Bray and Parker lined up across the 45-yard-line, or a 2-point conversion where long snapper Logan Castor lined up a few steps away from the main personnel grouping and shoveled the snap to Mana Carvalho, who ran it in for 2 points.

Dampier was also spreading the ball around — 10 different receivers caught a pass on Saturday — making it hard for Arkansas’ defense to key into just one receiver.

In Game 1, Braden Pegan was the star receiver, catching four passes for 81 yards and a score. Pegan had three receptions for 32 yards against Arkansas, but tight end Noah Bennee was Utah’s leading receiver with 113 yards and a touchdown on four receptions.

Though McGiven tries to get the ball to his playmakers, with so many options, being willing to sacrifice touches for the greater good of the team is a key part of Utah’s offensive success thus far.

“Our guys have a great attitude right now, great mentality,” Scalley said. “You may get yours one week, you may not get as much the next week, but it doesn’t matter who scores, it matters that we score and guys are bought into that right now.”

The most stressed person on game days, Scalley says, isn’t the head coach or the coordinators — it’s the personnel spotter that is trying to relay the offense’s personnel to coaches as fast as he can.

Utah makes that job tough.

“When you’ve got 40 seconds on the play clock, play ends, and really you don’t have 40 seconds, you have about 15 seconds to figure out what’s going on, who’s coming on, who’s coming off,” Scalley said. “… ‘Uh, it’s 12 personnel. No, no, no. It’s 10 personnel.’ All the while the coach is like, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go!’

“So they have a hard time and the more you can create chaos with guys coming on, guys going off and still be able to snap it in time and be efficient, that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Utah also varied the tempo, often going up-tempo to success in the first half.

“Creating different tempos as well. You go from being a huddle team to quick on the ball. So teams don’t get into a rhythm of, ’OK, they’re always going to huddle. They’re always going to break the huddle and we get to see the formation.’ You got to be able to mix that stuff up as well,” Scalley said.

What makes McGiven’s offense unique is the variety of playmakers that he has at his disposal, the most interesting one being Ficklin, who allows him to create a variety of two-quarterback packages and plays where the defense doesn’t know who is going to be throwing the ball.

“When you have athletes that can play multiple positions, Daniel Bray could line up as a wide receiver, can line up as a running back. Byrd, you see lining up as a wide receiver, he can also be a quarterback,” Scalley said. “When it’s a quarterback that can also throw the ball after a handoff or after a backwards pass, that creates, ‘Well, we got to stay on coverage, first of all, got to be aware that he can still throw the ball.’ These are the issues that you face every single snap.”

Motion and misdirection is another key tenant of McGiven’s offense, one that can cause fits for defensive coordinators.

“The shifts, the motions that force defenders to communicate throughout pre-snap communication. How good are they at pre-snap communication?” Scalley said. “How loud are they, particularly in loud environments? So the changing of the formation, the motions that can cause eye tricks, the changing of personnel groups, and then the physicality.”

McGiven will keep the creativity coming throughout the rest of Utah’s season, and he hopes the offensive production will remain high as well.

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