​The Utah Utes run on the field before a football game against the Utah State Aggies at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026.
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Tess Crowley, Deseret News
Through the opening three games, the beginning of the Morgan Scalley era has gone about as well as anyone could have hoped for. Some of that is due to the soft nonconference schedule, which ranks No. 130, featuring home games against Idaho, Arkansas and Utah State. You can only play who is in front of you, though, and athletic director Mark Harlan certainly didn’t envision the Razorbacks being one of the worst Power Four teams when he scheduled the home-and-home between the two programs back in 2019.“Oh, with the transfer portal, you don’t know what competition you’re going to get. My whole deal is you get who you get. Utah State, look at what they did to Washington on the road. I trust our administration and my job is to prepare this football team for whoever comes their way — and the competition is what the competition is,” Scalley said.With the caveat that the Utes haven’t been truly tested yet, Utah has lived up to its No. 15 national ranking, defeating Idaho 66-14, Arkansas 43-10 and Utah State 33-0.Now the real season arrives, starting with a trip to Ames this Saturday to face a rebuilding Iowa State team that could be ahead of schedule after Matt Campbell left for Penn State. The Utes will face tough tests in Houston, BYU and Arizona in Big 12 play, which will tell us everything about this team and how far they can go in Scalley’s inaugural season.After nonconference play, here are three things we’ve learned about the 2026 Utes.Kevin McGiven’s offense is unique and has included a shift in thinkingWhen was the last time that Utah fans had this much fun watching an offense? Kevin McGiven has shown why his name was jotted down in Scalley’s book of potential offensive coordinators long before Scalley was named Utah’s coach.When Scalley said before Week 1 that he wasn’t worried about showing too much of the offensive playbook during nonconference play, it was easy to dismiss that as coachspeak, but he was telling the truth.“Kevin’s done a nice job of having enough throughout spring and fall that you’re always going to see something new. With this offense and the amount of threats that we have, playmakers that we have, you may see something new every single week in terms of not just play selection, but personnel,” Scalley said. “… There’s something for every defense to be worried about. So not too worried about being vanilla.”McGiven has opened his bag of tricks early and often, even in games where Utah could have cruised with