Utah replaced the winningest coach in school history. It’s having its best season in 2 decades

The program Scalley took over Dec. 13 changed dramatically two weeks later when Whittingham replaced Sherrone Moore at Michigan.

Official response and confirmed impact

Whittingham had been at Utah 32 years, only a handful of seasons longer than Scalley, who arrived as a player in 2001 and never left, joining the administration in 2006 and Whittingham’s staff a year later.

After the 2025 season, Utah’s administration pushed Whittingham — the program’s winningest coach ever — to step aside and let Scalley, labeled the coach-in-waiting, take over the program.

Scalley inherited a 10-win program capable of winning the Big 12.

But Whittingham coaxed six coaches and the strength and conditioning coach to join him in Ann Arbor.

He made Beck the nation’s highest-paid offensive coordinator. All-American edge rusher John Henry Daley and tight end J.J.

Buchanan were among a handful of players to follow him. “I don’t think I had enough time to feel sorry for myself.

It was just happening so fast,” Scalley said. “And I truly believed in this place.” Scalley saw an opportunity to make the program his own.