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The University of Utah Athletics
Photo by: Anna Fuder/Utah Athletics
Postgame Quotes: No. 15 Utah vs. Nebraska
12/31/2025 7:13 PM | Football
Utah Quotes
Head Coach Morgan Scalley
Opening Statement…
"Man, this bowl experience has been awesome. Vegas has always been good to us, the bowl committee, John Saccenti, Kent Gardner from SRS Distribution, just making this really a special week for our players. There's a reason you want to get to a bowl game, and it's to get the goods, to get some good stuff and the gifts - they took care of our players. So much gratitude to them and to Virgin hotel who hosted us. I would say the biggest thing I want to emphasize is there have been so many distractions for these players, and the game is all about them, and so they're the ones that don't deserve all the distractions. They worked their tails off. This is the fourth season in University of Utah football history where we've had 11 wins, and that is amazing considering the history, so credit goes to the seniors, the leadership of this football team. So grateful that they held it together, it was the players really holding it together. I was swimming, trying to keep my head above water with the new assignment as the head football coach, and so I'm so grateful for them, grateful for our president, Taylor Randall, our athletic director, Mark Harlan, for their support throughout this experience. Grateful for Kyle Whittingham, my mentor - what an amazing coach and what he's done for this program, what he's done for me, personally, I can't thank him enough and wish him well on his journey at University of Michigan. But this is about our players, and I have not looked at the stats, but I know you did amazing, Spider-Man. This guy [Devon Dampier] had a birthday yesterday, and he's now an uncle again. Go Utes, we're so fired up."
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On the emotions after winning his first game as head coach…
"I am who I am, and I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I grew up a Utah man, my dad played the University of Utah, had family play at University of Utah, go to the University of Utah. I grew up running around in those tunnels at Rice Stadium when it wasn't Rice-Eccles Stadium, wear my little league jersey just to get into the game for free. I've seen it transition, I've been there through all of it, and my dream has always been to take it to the highest level. The one thing that I'm so grateful for is that my logo has never changed, nor will it. Add to that my family, what they sacrifice, my daughters - poor Emma, she's got the flu, so I was dealing with that too. But it takes a family to sacrifice a lot for me to be who I am, and if I'm not a great father, I will never be a great coach, so I just appreciate my family."
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On succeeding as change occurs…
"I've been through change. I've been through Ron McBride being fired and Urban [Meyer] taking off and going to Florida and it takes a strong culture to withstand change. That's the one thing about this place that is special – in this day and age of college football where everyone's telling this young men to get theirs, teams will continue to win championships, not individuals. It's always going to be about the team at the University of Utah. Change is going to happen, that's just the environment we're in in college football, but your culture has to be strong enough to withstand it."
Â
On the future of University of Utah football…
"This program will always be bigger than one person, it will continue to be Utah football and not Morgan Scalley. This is the culture – it's all about the players, it's all about the team. I'm grateful to be in a position where I can help lead, but at the same time you're only as good as your players and you'll never outperform the leadership that's provided by them. Blessed to be in this position, to have people trust and believe in me, but it's all about players."
Â
Quarterback Devon Dampier
On Morgan Scalley's hiring prior to the bowl game…
"He just lifted us up from the jump. Throughout this trip, he's allowed us to have both the fun of enjoying each other - there's a lot of love for this team that we've created, we've bonded since beginning, so just for him to allow us to have that time together - and then also when we got to business, man, we hit it hard. Practices were hard. Just grateful for it all, grateful for Coach Scalley, the way he handled everything, and that's kind of what kept us together."
Â
On spending one last game this season with the senior class…
"It's all about this game, that's what it's been about. These are my final hours with my seniors. I've been elected to be in the leadership since the beginning, was able to earn captain this game. They demonstrated leadership to the max, I'm so grateful it's the way I was raised. I take my relationships very valuable and very serious. It's the last couple hours to hang out with those guys, so that's where my mind is going to be at."
Â
Linebacker Lander Barton
On Morgan Scalley's hiring prior to the bowl game…
"This week, I never really felt like the team was ever really distracted by what was going on around us. I It made it easy too, because it's a good group of guys that are all bought into the culture, and we're all here for one reason, and that's to win a game. Coach Scalley preached every single day, every single team meeting that we had, to just stay focused on the goal. We have our time to have fun, like Devin said, and there's time to work. I'm just happy to be a part of this team and a part of Coach Scalley's first win."
Â
On the emotions of seeing Coach Scalley holding the trophy after the game…
"It was just good to see. Coach – he'll cry a little bit, he's not afraid to cry. He doesn't hide his feelings, he doesn't mask it. It takes a very brave and strong man to cry in front of others, and that's the type of man Coach Scalley is. That's the type of man I want to be someday. He leads by example."
Â
On making defensive adjustments after the first quarter…
"We can watch the film on the sidelines after every single series. In those first couple series, there were mistakes made on almost every single play where they were able to make big gains. We were kind of just settling in and just had to play fundamental and technique football, that's all it is. A lot of big plays happen when things start to break down so you just got to get back to doing your job and every single person needs to do that on the field. Once you start doing that, you saw the results of it,  we just had to settle in and adjust a little bit."
Â
Head Coach Morgan Scalley
Opening Statement…
"Man, this bowl experience has been awesome. Vegas has always been good to us, the bowl committee, John Saccenti, Kent Gardner from SRS Distribution, just making this really a special week for our players. There's a reason you want to get to a bowl game, and it's to get the goods, to get some good stuff and the gifts - they took care of our players. So much gratitude to them and to Virgin hotel who hosted us. I would say the biggest thing I want to emphasize is there have been so many distractions for these players, and the game is all about them, and so they're the ones that don't deserve all the distractions. They worked their tails off. This is the fourth season in University of Utah football history where we've had 11 wins, and that is amazing considering the history, so credit goes to the seniors, the leadership of this football team. So grateful that they held it together, it was the players really holding it together. I was swimming, trying to keep my head above water with the new assignment as the head football coach, and so I'm so grateful for them, grateful for our president, Taylor Randall, our athletic director, Mark Harlan, for their support throughout this experience. Grateful for Kyle Whittingham, my mentor - what an amazing coach and what he's done for this program, what he's done for me, personally, I can't thank him enough and wish him well on his journey at University of Michigan. But this is about our players, and I have not looked at the stats, but I know you did amazing, Spider-Man. This guy [Devon Dampier] had a birthday yesterday, and he's now an uncle again. Go Utes, we're so fired up."
Â
On the emotions after winning his first game as head coach…
"I am who I am, and I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I grew up a Utah man, my dad played the University of Utah, had family play at University of Utah, go to the University of Utah. I grew up running around in those tunnels at Rice Stadium when it wasn't Rice-Eccles Stadium, wear my little league jersey just to get into the game for free. I've seen it transition, I've been there through all of it, and my dream has always been to take it to the highest level. The one thing that I'm so grateful for is that my logo has never changed, nor will it. Add to that my family, what they sacrifice, my daughters - poor Emma, she's got the flu, so I was dealing with that too. But it takes a family to sacrifice a lot for me to be who I am, and if I'm not a great father, I will never be a great coach, so I just appreciate my family."
Â
On succeeding as change occurs…
"I've been through change. I've been through Ron McBride being fired and Urban [Meyer] taking off and going to Florida and it takes a strong culture to withstand change. That's the one thing about this place that is special – in this day and age of college football where everyone's telling this young men to get theirs, teams will continue to win championships, not individuals. It's always going to be about the team at the University of Utah. Change is going to happen, that's just the environment we're in in college football, but your culture has to be strong enough to withstand it."
Â
On the future of University of Utah football…
"This program will always be bigger than one person, it will continue to be Utah football and not Morgan Scalley. This is the culture – it's all about the players, it's all about the team. I'm grateful to be in a position where I can help lead, but at the same time you're only as good as your players and you'll never outperform the leadership that's provided by them. Blessed to be in this position, to have people trust and believe in me, but it's all about players."
Â
Quarterback Devon Dampier
On Morgan Scalley's hiring prior to the bowl game…
"He just lifted us up from the jump. Throughout this trip, he's allowed us to have both the fun of enjoying each other - there's a lot of love for this team that we've created, we've bonded since beginning, so just for him to allow us to have that time together - and then also when we got to business, man, we hit it hard. Practices were hard. Just grateful for it all, grateful for Coach Scalley, the way he handled everything, and that's kind of what kept us together."
Â
On spending one last game this season with the senior class…
"It's all about this game, that's what it's been about. These are my final hours with my seniors. I've been elected to be in the leadership since the beginning, was able to earn captain this game. They demonstrated leadership to the max, I'm so grateful it's the way I was raised. I take my relationships very valuable and very serious. It's the last couple hours to hang out with those guys, so that's where my mind is going to be at."
Â
Linebacker Lander Barton
On Morgan Scalley's hiring prior to the bowl game…
"This week, I never really felt like the team was ever really distracted by what was going on around us. I It made it easy too, because it's a good group of guys that are all bought into the culture, and we're all here for one reason, and that's to win a game. Coach Scalley preached every single day, every single team meeting that we had, to just stay focused on the goal. We have our time to have fun, like Devin said, and there's time to work. I'm just happy to be a part of this team and a part of Coach Scalley's first win."
Â
On the emotions of seeing Coach Scalley holding the trophy after the game…
"It was just good to see. Coach – he'll cry a little bit, he's not afraid to cry. He doesn't hide his feelings, he doesn't mask it. It takes a very brave and strong man to cry in front of others, and that's the type of man Coach Scalley is. That's the type of man I want to be someday. He leads by example."
Â
On making defensive adjustments after the first quarter…
"We can watch the film on the sidelines after every single series. In those first couple series, there were mistakes made on almost every single play where they were able to make big gains. We were kind of just settling in and just had to play fundamental and technique football, that's all it is. A lot of big plays happen when things start to break down so you just got to get back to doing your job and every single person needs to do that on the field. Once you start doing that, you saw the results of it,  we just had to settle in and adjust a little bit."
Â
Players Mentioned
LB
/ Football
QB
/ FootballFormer Utah Football Head Coach Urban Meyer inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
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