The state of Utah has been the center of the Big 12 universe during the coaching carousel and transfer portal window this year. 

I’ve covered plenty of BYU’s side of the drama in Open For Business: Kalani Sitake’s flirtation with Penn State, assistants Jay Hill and Jernaro Gilford leaving for Michigan, and the Cougars winning the fight to retain their best players. 

But what about the Utah Utes? 

They’ve certainly gotten the worst of Kyle Whittingham taking the Michigan job. Six assistant coaches, including offensive coordinator Jason Beck, followed him to Ann Arbor. 

The Utah offensive staff was gutted after producing one of the most prolific ground games in the country to get the program back on track this season. 

Four key players from the 2025 Utes left, too. 

CB Smith Snowden is the latest to become a Wolverine. Snowden is a two-year starter who was a second-team All-Big 12 pick last season. He took visits to BYU, Oregon, and Notre Dame, but ultimately chose Whittingham again. 

Others who have signed with the Wolverines include budding star TE/WR JJ Buchanan, first-team All-Big 12 edge John Henry Daley, and DT Jonah Lea'ea. 

The icing on the cake, and the move that seems to have angered Utah fans the most, is Whittingham swiping the top player in the Utes’ 2026 high school recruiting class, Salesi Moa. Moa is expected to make that decision official on Friday. 

He’s a four-star prospect and the number one player in the state of Utah. It was a huge recruiting win for the Utes when they flipped him from Tennessee in early December. 

In fairness to Utah, things haven’t all been bad for new head coach Morgan Scalley since Whittingham left. 

The Utes hung onto both of their dynamic quarterbacks. Devon Dampier didn’t follow Beck to Michigan and declared his return this week in an epic video announcement. 

It’s nearly impossible to hang onto a talented backup quarterback in the transfer portal era, but Utah is also keeping electrifying number two QB Byrd Ficklin. 

Overall, On3 ranks Utah’s portal class one spot ahead of Michigans. 

But it is clear that some damage has been done, and Scalley’s job was made more difficult by Whittingham.

I’m sure there are plenty of Ute fans who feel like Whittingham has tanked his Utah legacy. The difficult reality is that this was a tricky situation. I don’t think it’s fair to paint this with a broad brush one way or the other. 

It seems clear that Whittingham wanted to stay the head coach at Utah. It is also clear that if the Utes agreed to that, they would likely lose Scalley. And the reason Scalley was named head coach in waiting was that Whittingham himself started putting a timeline on his tenure years ago. 

Do I blame Whittingham for taking coaches and players from his former school after being nudged out and taking over a blueblood job? I don’t. If he’s going to take on a job of that magnitude, he needs to do it with the people he’s most comfortable with. You can’t be half-in at a job like Michigan. 

Do I blame Utah fans for being furious at him for doing it? Not a single bit. I would be too. 

Ultimately, though, this should not and will not affect his Utah legacy.

Whittingham gave the Utes more than two decades of Hall of Fame-level coaching. He carried them from the Mountain West to the top of the Pac-12, a feat that looks even more impactful today with the door effectively shut on Group of Five teams joining power conferences. It may be enough to keep Utah permanently in the top tier of college football, no matter what that looks like over the next decade.

Time heals all wounds, and I imagine that will be the case here. If Scalley is as good a head coach as Ute fans think he will be, that will help even more.

There should still be a statue of Whittingham at Rice-Eccles Stadium someday.

What You Need to Know

• A former Big 12 player is now considered the best and most expensive player in the transfer portal. 

• K-State landed a top 15 player in the transfer portal from another Big 12 school. 

• BYU landed the top linebacker in the transfer portal.

• College sports leaders may be working towards each conference governing itself and only playing conference games in the regular season. Here’s the latest from Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger. 

• Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman says he’s proud of his team captains for deciding to skip playing BYU in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. 

• What do college basketball coaches think is the best job in the Big 12? Here are the results of a Field of 68 poll. 

• Kansas handed #2 Iowa State its first loss of the season in resounding fashion at Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday. 

• BYU is retiring the jersey of one of the most popular players in college basketball history. 

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