Utah coach Morgan Scalley named to Bear Bryant award watch list
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The gist
Utah head coach Morgan Scalley was named to the 2026 Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year watch list, one of 28 coaches.
The honor comes as his No. 10 Utes sit 6-0 in his first full season.
Background
Morgan Scalley is the Utah Football head coach, a Salt Lake City native and former Ute All-America safety now in his first full season as head coach and 19th year on the staff. He took over from Kyle Whittingham, who coached the Utes for 21 seasons, after the 2025 regular season. Utah is 6-0 in 2026, and according to Utah Athletics he is the first Utah head coach to win their first seven games and the first to start a first full season 6-0.
How it unfolded
- Oct 17, 2026Utah beat Colorado 27-24 at Folsom Field, improving to 6-0 on two second-half Devon Dampier-to-Braden Pegan touchdowns.
- Oct 18, 2026Scalley said Utah should not have won outside of the score and that "You won't win many games doing what we did."
- Oct 19, 2026Scalley held his weekly press conference in Salt Lake City ahead of the Houston game, discussing College GameDay, the 100th consecutive sellout at Rice-Eccles Stadium and the Colorado film review.
- Oct 21, 2026The American Heart Association announced Scalley is on the 2026 Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year Award watch list, one of 28 coaches and one of five from the Big 12.
- Oct 23, 2026ESPN profiled Scalley's first season as head coach, describing his "Culture Clips" and practice changes.
- Oct 24, 2026No. 10 Utah is scheduled to host No. 14 Houston at 8:15 p.m. local time, 13 hours after ESPN College GameDay airs from President's Circle on campus.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- The American Heart Association named Scalley to the 2026 Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year watch list, one of 28 coaches and one of five from the Big 12.
- Analysts
- Roundtable highlighted the watch-list selection alongside Utah's 6-0 start and No. 10 ranking.
- Caution
- Scalley himself said Utah should not have won at Colorado outside of the score and that "that type of performance is probably not going to be good enough going forward."