It was back to the future for Utah football’s next head coach on Monday.
Kyle Whittingham will retire. It’s official. Not today. Not yet.
But when the time comes, defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley will replace him. Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said as much in a release issued Monday morning. Present and future Ute recruits can rest easy — the boss of Utah football is here, even when the boss’s boss walks away. So let it be written, so let it be done: Scalley is the head-coach-in-waiting.
End of story. Just like the beginning of the story. Not like the middle.
The middle is, as described by Scalley himself, “indefensible.” So it is that a man who is the master of defense could find no such defense for what he once did. And on account of that, destiny came within inches of being thwarted by ignorance. Damn ignorance.
As it is, though, as it turned out, Scalley was selected by destiny — not by Whittingham, not by Harlan, not by Utah president Taylor Randall, and not on Monday — to run Utah football. It happened two decades ago, when he was the captain of the Utes’ undefeated Fiesta Bowl team, back when it became obvious to everyone that there was something extra about the guy.
He was smart. He was diligent. He was tenacious. He was driven. He was a leader, a frontman for big, burly, strong young men who are rather selective and careful, typically at least, about who they choose to line up behind in the course of competition. Scalley was all of that. He, still, was not perfect, far from it.
You’re familiar with the tale: After his playing days, Scalley rocketed through the coaching ranks at his alma mater, straight on destiny’s path, ascending to the position of defensive coordinator and then, five years ago, to the lofty designation as head-coach-in-waiting.
I could list a hundred quotes, and have darn near done so in the past, from fellow coaches, former teammates and also athletes who have played for him, praising his acumen, his motivational prowess, his command of the Utah defense. He was Utah’s golden boy.
Until he wasn’t.
I repeat, you’re familiar with the tale, the awful middle of it: It became known that Scalley used a racist slur in a text, and was accused of using the N-word by another defensive player, and when all of that came clear, destiny’s route was properly steered into a deep ditch. Scalley was fortunate that it wasn’t steered into a brick wall. It might have been. It could have been. Some understandably thought it should have been.
He apologized with tears in his eyes for his stupidity, for his mistake, if that’s what it could be characterized as. He said he was “heartbroken,” adding: “I am truly sorry, and I own up to the hurtful effects of my choice. Through my actions and words going forward, I will demonstrate that my use of that slur in 2013 does not reflect or define who I am or what I stand for. My action is indefensible and I will use my voice and position to bring about meaningful and much-needed change.”
He added: “This will never happen again.”
Black men and women had heard a thousand such apologies before, and gone on walking directly into wretched discrimination of all kinds, in twisted minds and cruel words and wrongful actions, again and again, orchestrated by both wicked individuals and by those who were said by so many others to be “good people.”
So what was to be done with Scalley, who appeared sincere in his expression of regret, not just for being outed, for being caught, but for having done what he did? At the time, I criticized him aggressively, as did others. Some pathetically made excuses for him.
He did not do that for himself.
More of the middle: His million-dollar salary was cut in half, his HCIW status was stripped away. He kept his job, and in so doing, he said he’d live and learn, he’d go to work to improve personally and improve the Ute football program, all elements and aspects and shades of it.
By all indications, he’s done exactly that. He’s done what he said he’d do, talking right and walking right, eradicating what needed eradicating, demonstrating, proving to keen eyes around him, through his words and actions that the middle part was neither representative of him, nor would it conquer him or craft the end of his story.
The end is yet to be written. But as is usually the case, destiny wins.
Some will never forgive Morgan Scalley for what he did all those years ago, and that’s just the way it is, But if he is to be rightfully forgiven, there’s hope to be found in that. Hope that ignorance can be punched in the face, and put in its proper place — the past, and left there. And the future can bring resolve, redemption, enlightenment, a better day. When Scalley officially walks into the spacious office that once was occupied so deftly and proudly by Whittingham, at the top of the Utah program, he can bring that much with him, in hand and mind, along with his football acumen.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
Follow @GordonMonson