Postgame Quotes: Idaho at Utah
9/4/2026 12:01 AM | Football
Postgame Quotes
(at) No. 21 Utah 66, Idaho 14
Salt Lake City, Utah (Rice-Eccles Stadium)
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026
Kick: 7:02 p.m. MT | End: 10:27 p.m.
Attendance: 51,444 (sellout)
Utah Quotes
Head Coach Morgan Scalley
Opening Statement…
"Should have won that game. A lot of credit to Coach Ford and that crew. That is an offense that is going to score a lot of points in my opinion. Really good wide receivers, athletic tight ends, the offensive line is a veteran offensive line, but we did what we what we needed to do and you don't always do that. These first games can be tricky. You can be sloppy and not get things going. One penalty, I'm very pleased with that. I thought it was a pretty clean game for the most part. Only one penalty, the efficiency on offense, throwing the ball, both quarterbacks over 200 in pass efficiency offense and that's really what you're looking for. Not so much passing yards, although we did have a good amount. Also, the fact that we got so many guys involved was a big plus in this one. I think Devon threw it to eight different wide receivers. Very pleased with the production there. I thought we ran the ball extremely well. We'll watch the film and there is a lot to love about this and we know that the quality of opponent is just going to go up from here on out, but for a first game, we wanted to be clean. We wanted to play as a team. You watch those guys when they celebrate, they celebrate together. On the defensive side of the ball, the two early takeaways were huge. I think the one glaring negative in the game would have been that 13-play drive. I think it was the 2nd quarter, but I thought, Colton Swan and McGiven both had really good game plans and now the challenge just gets ramps up from here. I love our players, proud of and love our fans, 96 sellouts in a row. To show up and show up loud, love this atmosphere. We think it is the best in the Big 12 and hopefully we continue to do our fans proud."
On the story the stats from the game tell…
"We were good game one and that's not to discount what these guys did, because like I said, there's plenty of these first games. You go across the country and you're going to see teams struggle with teams that they should beat. I think you look at what we did on first down as an offense. I think we had eight yards per first down. That's crazy. Not to have the intolerable penalties, the stuff that just stabs yourself in the foot. It was clean and a pat on the back is not too far from a kick in the butt in this business. We just have to watch the film and see where we can improve."
On what his first home game as head coach was like…
"Oh, I just wanted our players to play and show what our culture's all about. It's not, and I keep saying this, it's not about Morgan Scalley. I'm happy that this first one's over with so everyone can stop talking about, okay, this is Morgan Scalley. This is a Utah football deal, always will be. It is about these kids. It's about these players and there are so many people, both that you see on the sideline, behind the scenes, that help these guys get to where they're at. We've got an unbelievable staff of people that care about these young men and we've got amazing young men, the way they treat each other, the way they're there for each other, so that's what I'm most pleased about."
On the performance of the offensive line…
"All you got to do is look at the stat sheet. You watch, good offensive line units finish plays. They're pushing guys, they're running down the field, pushing the pile and that's what you saw out of that crew today. A little bit of an edge to them is what we're looking for in our offensive line. Credit to Jordan Gross and Alex Gerke for getting those guys ready."
On the performances of the quarterbacks…
"I feel like we have two starting quarterbacks and they're both great leaders, unselfish, and you saw the efficiency tonight. Both can run the ball and when they're in there at the same time, as a former defensive coordinator, that scares me. It's like, okay, who's going to be the dude throwing the ball? I think you saw maybe that one double pass. There was a miscommunication there, but teams are going to continue to see more of that because we are going to continue to be creative and innovative and find ways to give defensive coordinators headaches."
Quarterback Devon Dampier
On adjusting to the new staff and new players…
"I'll start off with Scalley. Honestly, you know, different head coach and you wonder what that's going to be like. The energy and the calmness that he had in us; like, he didn't need to rally us up too much. He was like 'y'all, we've been doing this for months now, so just go out there, do what you do, we're all gonna make mistakes but at the end of the day forget it, move on to the next play.' Just the way he carried himself definitely brought a different impact to us."
On the game slowing down from last year to this year…
"I feel like…the game slowing down has probably been the biggest step that I've had going into the season. Just the amount of coaching getting from [QBs coach Ryan Gunderson] and [OC Kevin McGiven]. Just making the game a lot slower."
Running Back Wayshawn Parker
On starting the season with three touchdowns…
"I mean, I was just going out there being confident in my [offensive line]…the whole team, like we've been [practicing] since January. It was time to prove what we can do. So that first game, I had to go out there and show what it's going to be like this whole year."
On the running backs as a group…
"I mean, we already knew who was going to come out…Everybody was going to go out there and ball out, and we had that standard. No matter who's on that field, you're gonna have your job and you're going to do it correctly. So everybody went out there; they already knew what to do, and they just balled out."
Wide Receiver Braden Pegan
On his first game at Utah…
"You know, playing my first game as a Ute was so much fun. Like [Wayshawn Parker] said, we put in a lot of work this offseason. So seeing it just come to life it was super exciting."
Linebacker Trey Reynolds
On the encouragement in seeing Cyrus Polu and Elijah Reed's performances…
"Yeah, it's great to know we got some awesome guys that will come in and help us out when we're tired. They've been putting in the work all off-season and we have full trust in them and confidence they can go in there and get the job done if needed. They're great guys and they know the defense well. So we're really excited about them."
