Scalley – HC in Waiting

[UteThunder]

When it was announced, I was excited because it meant we could keep him as DC.

Looking ahead to the end of this season, when KW retires, I can’t really say I’m excited at the prospect of Scalley taking over. It will be interesting to see who he hires as OC & DC.

[The Miami Ute]

Just asking, but how do you know that Whitt retires at the end of this season? His current contract runs through the end of the 2027 season or three more years after this one. At around $7M per season, that’s a lot of money to leave on the table. Who knows what Whitt will do. Maybe he’s building an addition to his mansion and needs the money. I don’t know but that kind of paycheck makes people look at life differently. It sure made Coach K stay at Utah until the bitter end.

[RustyShackleford]

He has a nice house but it’s definitely not a mansion

[The Miami Ute]

Rusty, where does he live? Somewhere on the Avenues or up in Big Cottonwood?

[UteThunder]

The announcement that Scalley was named HC in waiting (again) combined with Whittingham making comments in the last year about getting close to retirement and how he has missed too much time with his family – specifically with grandkids.

I believe the years on his contract were put there so as to not hurt recruiting.

I don’t know when he is retiring, but I would bet money he hangs it up at the end of this year.

[The Miami Ute]

Fair enough. Thanks for the explanation.

[Utah]

Whitt has not retired because he thinks he can make the playoffs and have a shot at a national title.

He’s not retiring after a year like this.

[UteThunder]

You think he wants to come back for a rebuild after the way last year went and the way this year is going? Next year’s team will likely be worse than this year’s team.

He has said he doesn’t see himself coaching into his late 60s. He turns 65 next month. Odds are, he’s not coming back.

[2008 National Champ]

He’s also said that he didn’t see himself coaching into his 60’s. That “I’m not going to be around after ___” number seems to get extended every time another contract gets signed.

[Utehoopsfan]

Yeah, it was a mistake to make him HC in waiting. He should definitely be a candidate for the job, but not opening it up and seeing what good coaches are available is a mistake.

[Rick Walker]

My hope for Scalley is that he has some Urban Meyer in him. Not saying that he does, but if he could take that Urban level of aggression I thank he could have some success, but we’ll see when it happens.

[2008 National Champ]

Urban also had a pretty good ability to identify future head coaches who had the same aggressive philosophy that he did. Between Whitt, Mullen, Sanford and I think at least one more that I’m not remembering off the top of my head, that 2003/04 coaching staff had a lot of talent on it who also became HC’s in a very short period of time after.

Whitt has gone with more of the friends and family plan which has produced stability (other than OC) and consistent results but perhaps been limited on out of the box thinking.

[CityCreekUte]

The success of a Scalley transition in my mind depends a lot on whether the program is in the toilet or winning. Right now it would knee cap the hell out of him. If it was announced before the Penn St Rose bowl that it was Whitt’s last game it probably would have work ok. Right now… not so much.

[Utah#1]

After the last two losses, I have my reservations about Scalley. If the trend continues rest of the season into next season with or without Whitt, Scalley would have a monumental task ahead of him to right the ship and get the program back on track. Right now, Jay Hill has done an excellent job at TDS that the administration needs to give him a seriously look for the Utah HC job. If Scalley still wants to be the HC in waiting, he needs to prove it now more than ever as the results thus far are not in his favor.

[2008 National Champ]

are you Jay Hill’s agent? I kid, but at the same time, Hill would be a local hire for a program with National aspirations. There’s nothing wrong with a Utah guy running the Utah program but swapping Scalley out for Hill just sounds like an older version of the same.

When some of us talk about doing a search and if Scalley is the best guy run with him, we mean an actual search. Not option 1B being the guy from the next town over of which the bulk of his experience is within a 2 hour circle of the job site. Right now I’d take Kenny Dillingham over Scalley or Hill and not think twice about it. So go find the next Dillingham, or Meyer, Matt Rhule, Art Briles (sans scandal), Kalen DeBoer.,, there are future stars looking for the chance. A good AD will already have done his due diligence and have a bunch of names identified. Falling back on the usual suspects or for lack of a better term, inbreeding, tends to provide diminishing returns.

[Utehoopsfan]

Maybe, but Jay hill is a more proven winner at this point. Scalley has never been a HC. Yes it was Weber, but Jay Hill did an excellent job at Weber. He has ttds playing really good defense this year and greatly overachieving why Scalley is doing the opposite.

I agree with your second paragraph. We should do a national search and find the best coach. There was zero reason to make Scalley the coach in waiting. If he left and the Utes wanted him, they could just get him from wherever he was coaching at. He is a good DC, but not a great one. He would be replaceable if he left. The Utes had a great defense before Scalley and with Whitt would have kept the D at a good level.

[2008 National Champ]

Depends on how much you value his time at Weber regardless of his record. Yes, he has CEO experience and had to do it on a shoestring budget. At the same time, Utah has kept Scalley from striking out on his own and getting that same experience. Based on where things stand right now, I think if Utah said that Scalley not ever being a HC was a deal breaker it would be disingenuous.

For any other job in the country I would say that Hill’s experience trumps Scalley’s loyalty. I just don’t see how you can do it for this particular job which leads me right back to, what else distinguishes Hill from Scalley?

[Caliman]

Another defensive minded HC? hell no! Utah needs someone with balls on offense. Enough of this Andy L. bull s**t offense, it sucks. Bring in ,Barry Odom look what he’s doing at sucky UNLV. UNLV is kicking ass and taking names.
Barry Odom the one Utah needs.

[UteThunder]

I don’t know who Mike Samford is, but he isn’t the coach at UNLV. That would be Barry Odom.

[Caliman]

Woops! You’re right, that guy, Odom knows how to score TDs.

[Author]

Posts