Morgan Scalley era begins this week. What to keep an eye on ahead of spring camp

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The weather is warming and spring is in the air, which means that the first taste of college football is just around the corner.

Utah will begin its spring camp on Thursday, March 19, officially kicking off the Morgan Scalley era.

With seven new position coaches on staff and a bevy of new players, this spring camp for Utah will be important, setting the tone of the program under a new head coach.

After a bounce-back 11-2 campaign in 2025 in what would end up being Kyle Whittingham’s final year with Utah, the Utes enter spring with momentum, especially after retaining key pieces like quarterbacks Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin and running back Wayshawn Parker.

Still, with a mostly-new coaching staff and plenty of new faces on both sides of the ball, there are questions surrounding Scalley and the Utes as they begin practicing next week.

Here are three storylines to follow as the Utes embark on spring camp.

New offensive line takes shape

Utah’s offensive line will look a whole lot different in 2026.

There will be five new starters along the offensive line this season for the Utes, plus a new offensive line coach — former Carolina Panthers star Jordan Gross, who replaces longtime position coach Jim Harding.

Last season, the front five was the strength of Utah’s offense, powered by two future NFL draft picks in Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu and three seniors in the middle. Now, the unit gets a new beginning and will have five new starters.

It’s not all new faces competing for those jobs, however.

Seniors Alex Harrison (143 snaps last year) and Zereoue Williams (156 snaps) are on Utah’s 2026 roster and look to have received NCAA eligibility waivers. The two veterans provide some continuity from Utah’s previous group and will be in the mix for starting jobs, alongside Solatoa Moea’i (336 snaps last season) and junior Keith Olsen, who played 295 snaps last year.

Other holdovers that could be in the mix for starting jobs or rotation snaps are four-star redshirt freshman Isaiah Garcia (suffered a season-ending injury last fall camp) and Roger Alderman (134 snaps).

There are a few new players that could challenge for starting jobs right away — five-star freshman Kelvin Obot and Montana State redshirt sophomore Cedric Jefferson could very well end up starting at the tackle spots.

Obot is the highest-rated prospect to ever sign with Utah and, at 6-foot-5 and 295 pounds, already has the size for the college game. Gross, who coached Obot at Fruitland High in Idaho, says the freshman phenom is already looking like he belongs on the field physically and mentally. The next steps for Obot, starting in spring practice, will be continuing to get used to the speed and size of the college game.

By the end of spring, Utah should have an outline of their starting lineup and know which players work well together.

New full-time starters on the edge

Just like on the offensive side of the ball, Utah will be replacing every full-time starter on the defensive line.

Star defensive end John Henry Daley, who had 11.5 sacks in 2025 before his season was cut short in the final month, transferred to Michigan; defensive end Logan Fano declared for the draft; defensive tackle Jonah Lea’ea went to Ann Arbor; and Aliki Vimahi graduated.

While Luther Elliss remains at Utah as the defensive tackles coach, the defensive ends will have a new boss — Inoke Breckterfield, who arrives in Salt Lake City after coaching Washington’s unit for the past two years.

Daley was a special talent, so it will be hard to replace him, but Utah has two players from the 2025 team ready to step up, plus a new transfer that will also compete for the starting job.

Kash Dillon played 340 snaps and started three games last season, totaling 35 tackles and 3.5 sacks as he made the first-to-second-year jump. Lance Holtzclaw, the Washington transfer, played 341 snaps, started the Las Vegas Bowl, and totaled 26 tackles and 1.5 snaps.

Both players improved over the course of the season and are in good spots to land starting jobs.

Utah also added Ethan Day from North Texas, who started all 13 games for North Texas in his junior season, racking up 53 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks.

Those three will be the main rotation players on the edge for the Utes, but a spring subplot will be how the depth behind them shakes out. Senior Paul Fitzgerald, Lehi High freshman PJ Takitaki and sophomore Nicholas Igwe are among the names trying to get in the rotation this season.

Which receivers stand out?

Each season, the question is posed: Is this the year that a Utah receiver breaks the 1,000-yard mark? The last Ute WR to do so was Dres Anderson in the 2013 season, and though Darren Carrington was close with 980 receiving yards in 2017, that mark hasn’t been crossed in over a decade.

Braden Pegan, who caught 60 passes for 926 yards and five touchdowns last year at Utah State, is the early favorite to lead the Utes’ wide receiver room. Whether he can get close to the 1,000-yard mark remains to be seen — Ryan Davis was the closest receiver last year with 725 yards — but he enters spring as Utah’s WR1.

Pegan has the advantage of knowing new offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven’s offense, having played in it last year, and if he can develop chemistry with quarterback Devon Dampier, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound junior should turn into one of his favorite targets.

There’s going to be plenty of competition elsewhere in the room, and it will be one of the biggest storylines this spring camp.

Utah brings back Creed Whittemore, who took time to find his footing last season, but once he got playing time in the last month of the season, he showed flashes of potential with 12 catches for 91 yards and a touchdown.

Daidren Zipperer came on strong at the end of the 2024 season, but suffered an injury in fall camp that cost him the 2025 season. Now healthy, what will he show this spring?

Other players to watch in the wide receiver room include Kyri Shoels, who had a productive 2025 for San Jose State with 59 catches for 768 yards and two scores, and Larry Simmons, who had a good final third of the season and finished with 280 yards and six touchdowns on 15 receptions.

Wide receiver has consistently been a question mark for the Utes over the years. Under coach Chad Bumphis, who makes his return to Utah as receivers coach, can the Utes finally shake that narrative with a group of productive players?

In case you missed it

Utah’s 2025-26 season, the first under new coach Alex Jensen, ended with a familiar result as the Utes fell to Cincinnati in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.

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