SALT LAKE CITY – He drove to Devon Dampier's apartment last December, roaming through the twists and turns of the downtown campus at Utah to do the right thing. Face to face. Man to man.
This wasn’t the time for Morgan Scalley, Utah’s new coach of mere hours, to beg his starting quarterback to return instead of jumping in the transfer portal. Dampier needed to hear something much more important.
“He needed to hear I’m sorry,” Scalley says.
On any number of levels.
Sorry Dampier left New Mexico with offensive coordinator Jason Beck and transferred to Utah to play for Kyle Whittingham — and the Whittingham and Utah marriage
ended so abruptly.
Sorry Whittingham then left for Michigan — and took Beck with him.
Sorry Dampier's first injury-filled season at Utah didn’t work out — especially with all that he gave up.
“That’s a crappy thing to go through,” Scalley says now. “I told him I’m sorry this is happening, but I want to make this a fairytale ending.”
So when the 101st straight sellout crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium rushed the field after the first win over bitter rival BYU since 2019, after Dampier threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more, you better believe he was going to enjoy it.
There he was, crowd surfing. A long way from that unseasonably cold night in December when he was lost in his apartment after a coaching change, and didn’t know how the future would unfold.
Well, here it is: unbeaten Utah, ranked No. 3 in the nation — and maybe higher before the end of the regular season — on a historic run to the College Football Playoff.
“A great win, but it’s one game,” Dampier said. “We have to finish out the season. That’s what we agreed to.”
They all agreed to it. Coaches, players, staff. Too much had been overlooked and missed in 2025, a team straying from a culture built over the past two-plus decades of doing more with less.
So when Scalley arrived at Dampier’s apartment in December, that’s where the foundation of the 2026 season began. He didn’t beg Dampier to stay, didn’t plead for him to not follow Whittingham to Michigan because of Michigan’s quarterback room and the money invested in Bryce Underwood.
None of that mattered. Dampier’s investment in the Utah team was everything.
Scalley told Damper he had to be a better leader, period. Had to lead by example and mentally and physically push his teammates.
“Just because you’re a quarterback doesn’t mean you’re automatically a leader,” Scalley said. “He needed to hear that his teammates see his body language and feed off it.”
So he told Dampier they’d get him healthy, and they’d have him prepared and they’d continue with the same offense that had made Utah so dangerous for so many years. The rest was up to him.
“Scallley built me into such a great leader,” Dampier said. “I just want to give it back to the team.”
It should come as no surprise that after Utah took an early 14-0 lead and then had 37 total yards on the next 23 plays of the first half, the Utes found themselves in another make-or-break moment with a 21-20 lead in the fourth quarter.
The 7-play, 68-yard drive was Dampier at his best. A 6-yard run to begin the drive, then a dynamic, twisting and turning 30-yard run on a scramble. The drive ended with a 3-yard touchdown scramble on 3rd-and-goal.
With that score, he became the second player in FBS history to throw for two touchdowns, run for two touchdowns and have at least 25 yards receiving. Dampier’s lone catch went for 29 on a 4th-and-short trick play in the third quarter, a prayer of a throw from wideout Creed Whittemore.
“I told him to throw it up, I don’t care of I’m covered, I’m going to get it,” Dampier said.
He was double covered, and he got it. The only problem was the gimme putt 27-yard field goal that ended the drive.
But the Heisman Trophy moment was there, all part of a rare season that keeps getting better.
“My guy, man, he’s unbelievable,” said Utah wideout Braden Pegan. “Nothing he does is surprising.”
Minutes after the huge win, after the crowd surfing and the statement made to the rest of college football, Scalley was told Dampier said Scalley built him into the leader he is now.
“I didn’t build anything,” Scalley said. “Leadership is based on the trust you’ve earned. There’s no telling where it can lead.”
Maybe to a fairytale ending.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him daily, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Utah football’s dream season began with two words to Devon Dampier: ‘I’m sorry’
