Utah
How a gesture from Utah’s coaching staff helped solidify Devon Dampier’s decision to return to Utah
Amid the change of Kyle Whittingham stepping down and Morgan Scalley taking over as Utah football’s head coach last December, one question hung in the air: Would quarterback Devon Dampier come back to the program?
On Dec. 18, in the immediate aftermath of Whittingham stepping down, Dampier hinted that he was going to return to Utah.
“Y’all going to see. Y’all going to see, but it is great. I’m very happy to be here. Seriously,” Dampier said with a smile.
Though there were rumblings that Dampier had already signed a deal to stay in Salt Lake City, as time passed without an announcement from the man himself, more and more Ute fans started to wonder if their starting quarterback would return after all.
On Jan. 13, two weeks after Dampier dazzled in a Las Vegas Bowl win over Nebraska, the Utah quarterback posted a video on social media with his face superimposed over Leonardo DiCaprio’s in the famous “Wolf of Wall Street” clip.
“I’m not leaving.”
As Utah’s program underwent significant change — ushering in a new era under Scalley, losing offensive coordinator Jason Beck and five other assistant coaches to Michigan and dealing with departing players in the transfer portal — Dampier’s decision to come back was a stabilizing force for a program in flux.
Make no mistake, Dampier will be rewarded handsomely for staying at Utah, but in an age when the highest dollar almost always wins out in the transfer portal, there were a few other factors that weighed into the quarterback’s decision to return.
Loyalty, finishing what he’s started at Utah and playing in front of the fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium were all elements, but a gesture by Scalley and his coaching staff also made a big impression on Dampier.
“When I had surgery, I came back and our whole entire staff was waiting for me to get off the plane. That meant a lot to me,” Dampier told the Deseret News.
What sealed the deal for Dampier was a conversation with Scalley.
“Just us having this conversation about what he wanted out of me and just his background and my background, we just got on the same page and I love what he said. I love what I felt and I’m sticking to it,” Dampier said.
Despite Scalley being the defensive coordinator at the time, he was the person Dampier talked to the most during his initial recruiting visit in 2025. When Whittingham went to Michigan, there was no hesitation from Dampier to put his full trust in Scalley.
“For him to step into the head coaching job, I had full belief in it. No question. I think he’s worked hard to get to this position, and just as time goes on, it keeps reminding me that I picked the right decision just where things have been so far and I’m loving it,” Dampier said.
While this fall will be Scalley’s first full season as head coach, Dampier already got a taste of what he will be like at the helm.
The original plan was for Whittingham to cap off his Utah career in the Las Vegas Bowl, but when Michigan courted him for its open job and Whittingham accepted, that plan was scrapped.
Instead, Scalley abruptly took over as head coach of his alma mater just days ahead of the New Year’s Eve bowl game. Dampier described the time period of losing Whittingham and Beck as “a lot emotionally,” but as Scalley took the reins, the players rallied around him.
“Something that we live by at Utah is no one’s bigger than the team,” Dampier said. “No one’s bigger than the program, so when you lose one person, man, there’s so many other people in the building, we worked so hard to get to this point that one person doesn’t control our destiny.”
“So just sticking to that, sticking to our culture, and I mean, Scalley came with so much energy. It kind of lightened us up as players just to feel that energy going into a game and it all worked out obviously.”
It was as good of a head coaching debut as Scalley and the Utes could have asked for. Dampier threw for 310 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 148 yards and three scores and was named the MVP of the Las Vegas Bowl and wore a huge chain with a Utah logo on it postgame.
The next day, Beck left for Michigan, along with five other coaches.
‘He’s going to be able to put me in the best situation every play’
Scalley wasted no time and quickly went to work building his staff, and a lot was on the line as he selected Utah’s new offensive coordinator.
Beck was the only offensive coordinator Dampier had known in college, and the pairing was highly successful. Dampier had excellent command of the offense, and in turn, Beck entrusted him with a lot of control.
In his first season with Utah after making the jump with Beck from New Mexico in 2025, Dampier threw for 2,490 yards and 24 touchdowns with five interceptions on 63.75% accuracy. He answered the two biggest knocks on him from 2024, improving his completion percentage while lowering his turnovers.
Utah went 11-2 including the bowl win, and Dampier helped guide the Utes to a new school rushing record, contributing 835 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.
All of that production came while Dampier was fighting through injury through much of the year.
Dampier’s signature in the 2025 season came in a dramatic comeback win over Kansas State. On a night when Utah’s defense could not get a stop for much of the game, Dampier put the team on his back.
First, he threw a 20-yard touchdown to Larry Simmons to get Utah within three points, then led a two-minute drill that featured a 59-yard run from him on fourth-and-1 to set up a touchdown run from him to take the lead.
“That last score, it was surreal,” Whittingham said postgame. “It was just a moment that, like I said, you can’t even dream it up.”
Certainly, Dampier wasn’t perfect in 2025, but he elevated Utah’s offense and quarterback play — something sorely needed after the 2023 and 2024 seasons — and he also made an impact on the team with his leadership, often taking his teammates out to eat on his dime.
It’s no surprise that Dampier was named to the leadership council this spring, and he should be a captain for the Utes in the fall.
With Beck in Ann Arbor, Scalley needed to nail the offensive coordinator hire. Scalley, who has kept a running list of possible candidates for the last decade, turned to Utah State offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven.
Led by former Ute quarterback Bryson Barnes in 2025, the Aggies scored 30.9 points per game (No. 36 in the country) and averaged 409.5 yards per game (No. 39 in the country), and that’s with an offensive line that didn’t play up to par, to put it mildly, during most of the season.
At Utah State, McGiven utilized Barnes in the run-pass option to success, with the former Ute throwing for 2,803 yards and 18 touchdowns with five interceptions on 59.3% accuracy and rushing for 740 yards and 10 scores.
Utah State’s offense was explosive, a word multiple Utah players have used this spring when describing what it’s like to play in McGiven’s system.
One selling point for McGiven is that he has a lot of similar offensive concepts as Beck, and that should make the transition easier for Dampier. McGiven has also been willing to adopt the offensive language that the Utes used under Beck to help ease the transition.
McGiven has proved that he can tailor an offense to best utilize each team’s unique skillset, and that’s something that resonated with Dampier.
“You definitely don’t want to play under anyone that doesn’t utilize your skillsets,” Dampier said. “Coach McGiven made it an emphasis that he loves my skillset. He loves what I do.
“He’s going to be able to put me in the best situation every play, … he trusts me, gives me the freedom to do what I want to do every play.”
That trust is important for Dampier, and it’s stood out since his first meeting with Utah’s new OC.
“To have that, to hear that from the beginning, not even when we got to meet for a long time, it’s a different type of feeling that I got of trust and belief that he already had in me,” Dampier said.
“So every day we’re out here, it’s showing up more and more of his faith in me and how much we’re getting on the same page and we’re starting to learn what each other is thinking.”
When he met with Dampier, McGiven pointed to his track record of developing quarterbacks and laid out where the senior signal caller needs to improve in order to achieve his dream of playing in the NFL.
“It’s a goal of his to go to the NFL and so, OK, how do we need to develop you to get you to the next level?” McGiven said. “We need to get you more in tune with protection. We need to get you more in tune with certain types of reads, with certain types of concepts so that you can become more of a complete player.”
So far this spring, McGiven has emphasized the importance of film for Dampier and has coached him on decision making and being a smarter player.
“Developing the total quarterback, and I think the biggest thing with their development, probably with the system and schematics of the system, is just developing their decision making, developing their processes,” McGiven said.
“Reads, going from maybe where he’s got an object receiver, it’s like ‘throw to this guy’, and then all of a sudden you’re going through a full-field progression with certain concepts just because of what the system requires you to do.”
‘Just extra work and a lot of conversations’
Along with learning a new offensive system, Dampier is tasked with building chemistry with a number of new starters, beginning with the offensive line.
The Utes return veteran linemen with experience — Keith Olson (295 snaps last year), Alex Harrison (143 snaps) and Zereoue Williams (156 snaps) — and Solatoa Moea’i (335 snaps at “Y” tight end), but there are new faces such as five-star freshman tackle Kelvin Obot and Montana State transfer Cedric Jefferson.
All in all, it will be a completely new group of starters protecting Dampier.
“Obviously with the O-line as well, just me being involved in pass protection and things like that now, just having that authority, it feels great. I feel like I’m being tested as a leader and I’m embracing it,” Dampier said.
Dampier also has a lot of new pass-catchers — Utah State transfer Braden Pegan (926 receiving yards last year) and San Jose State transfer Kyri Shoels (768 yards) chief among them.
The work to build chemistry between Dampier and his new targets began in the winter and is continuing through the spring.
“Just extra work and a lot of conversations. We kind of have an unsaid rule where if a receiver comes up to me and says something, I’m going to listen to what they say and I’m going to respect what they say, and same way for them,” Dampier said.
“If I say something to them, they’re going to take it and we all know we’re having these conversations to get better. I think that puts us a step closer and closer to the same page on different situations the defense gives us.”
As Scalley heads into his inaugural season as head coach, a lot is riding on the performance of Dampier.
Last season showed that Utah’s offense can be dynamic with him in charge. With the return of Dampier, fellow quarterback Byrd Ficklin, running back Wayshawn Parker and the additions of Pegan and Shoels, there is a high ceiling on offense, but much of it will come down to offensive line and quarterback play.
As Scalley — who has been on the defensive side of the ball for his entire coaching career — shifts to command the entire team, he is focusing in on how to help Dampier become the best version of himself.
“He obviously wants me to get better as a passer, better as a decision maker, learn how to lead an offense fully, having the ability to be engaged with the O-line protections and just all of that,” Dampier said.
“He’s challenging me. He’s making me better. He’s preparing me the right way for the NFL and that’s all I want. The next goal is to get to the NFL, and with my senior year coming up, that’s a huge priority.”
SALT LAKE CITY — A new art museum located in the historic B’nai Israel Temple in downtown Salt Lake City, dedicated to preserving Utah culture and providing a platform for Utah artists, is opening.
The Salt Lake Art Museum, 249 S. 400 East, aims to highlight both historic and contemporary Utah artists while also promoting thoughtful conversations on modern topics. It is the first new art museum to open in the city in more than 40 years.
“Opening the Salt Lake Art Museum is a defining moment for our state’s cultural landscape,” said Chris Jensen, museum executive director.
While the official grand opening of the museum isn’t until July 24, it has already begun hosting events and programming, including an interactive “Make Your Mark” installation where community members can trace their silhouettes onto the walls.
“The project serves as both an introduction to the museum and a living time capsule capturing the voices and identities of the community in the weeks leading up to the grand opening,” a statement from the museum said.
The Salt Lake Art Museum was founded by Micah Christensen, a distinguished art historian based in Salt Lake City. About a year ago, Christensen contacted Jensen, who has a background in nonprofits and cultural and historical preservation, to discuss purchasing the B’nai Israel Temple to create a museum.
The focus of the museum would be to elevate Utah artists, Utah art collections and art created in Utah.
“Utah is home to an incredible number of artists, yet we’ve long lacked a dedicated space to fully celebrate their work. This museum changes that. It’s a place where Utah artists are centered, their stories are elevated and our community can come together to experience the power of art,” Jensen said.
The museum began its programming with a Utah Master Series, which celebrates Utah’s most influential visual artists and recognizes their contributions to the state’s cultural legacy.
“It’s almost like a hall of fame of Utah artists,” Jensen explained.
The first three artists to be part of the exhibition were Galina Perova, Stanley Wanlass and Ben Hammond. Each artist had a dedicated night at the museum, where their work was displayed and they discussed their art-making process and the arts in Utah.
One of the museum’s opening exhibitions will be on Albert Bierstadt, a famous painter in the late 1800s who painted the American West. He spent three weeks painting in Utah and the museum will display 25 of his approximately 30 Utah landscapes he created.
To make the gallery extra special, the museum will have modern pictures of the same landscapes alongside each painting.
“It’s really a tale of how human interaction changes landscape and how our landscapes in Utah have changed since the 1800s. So that is really exciting and it’s the first of its kind on Albert Bierstadt,” he said.
The museum will also have exhibits on Pilar Pobil, a Spanish-born immigrant who self-taught herself painting and sculpture and died in 2024, and a show on the Julia Reagan billboards and how they intersected with pop culture and art in Utah.
Additionally, the museum’s opening exhibitions will include a gallery on the history of the B’nai Israel Temple, which was completed in 1891, two years before the Salt Lake Temple was finished.
Museums preserve the culture of whatever they are targeting, Jensen said. The Salt Lake Art Museum aims to preserve Utah’s art culture and its communities, he added.
There are many great artists from Utah who are famous around the world but unknown within their home state, and this museum hopes to change that, Jensen said.
“We have more artists here per capita than anywhere in the U.S., and it’s time that we shine a light on it and celebrate it. And that goes all the way from arts and crafts up to fine art,” he said.
He hopes people are proud of how much quality art comes from our state. When people come to the museum, they support great Utah artists and have a chance to learn more about the place they call home.
Art can be a great avenue to discuss modern issues, such as immigration, climate change and discrimination, through both historical and contemporary lenses, Jensen said. For example, the Salt Lake Art Museum plans to do a show soon on the Great Salt Lake and host a plein air competition at the lake.
“I want people to think of everything that’s happening in our modern world when they come through here and to see themselves reflected in that and how they should be reacting to it,” he said.
Overall, Jensen hopes people appreciate and support art museums as they “tell the story of us as a species.”
“When you go to a museum, it’s a chance to reflect on what we were and what we have become — things lost and things improved. So I really think it’s important because it tells us the greater story of humanity,” Jensen said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
An adolescent owl that was found stuck in a concrete mixer in southwestern Utah is finally on the mend, flying free and maybe a bit wiser from the ordeal.
The great horned owl somehow made his way into the truck-mounted mixer in late October and was discovered by workers pouring concrete at a resort construction site.
Lucky for him, a series of people gave a hoot about his predicament. Workers hosed the bird down before it was wrapped in a towel.
It took days for employees at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab to pick the concrete from the bird’s face, chest and right wing, using forceps to carefully crack the dried debris and cleaning the feathers with toothbrushes and dish soap.
The owl started its long recovery at an aviary run by the organization, and employees anxiously waited for it to grow new feathers. But the bird didn’t molt as predicted.
In early May, he underwent a procedure called imping, which uses adhesive to graft donor feathers onto existing shafts.
“The first few feathers were extremely nerve-wracking, but as we got into the groove, the imping became more comfortable, and everything went smoothly,” said Bart Richwalski, a supervisor at the sanctuary.
Great horned owls typically have tufting on the edges of some of their feathers that allows them to fly quietly as they hunt.
But the concrete frayed the rescued owl’s feathers and caused it to make a whooshing sound while flying.
To prepare for the imping procedure, sanctuary staff examined the owl’s feather patterns every few weeks and snipped damaged shafts in advance.
The owl was anesthetized and the donor feathers from a similarly sized owl that had died were laid out nearby to replicate each wing.
The staff then cut the feathers to the necessary length, lined them up and adhered them to the bird.
By the end of the 90-minute procedure, the owl had 10 new primary feathers and a secondary feather on his right wing. But then came the real test: could he fly silently?
The bird was placed in a large aviary to recover from the anesthesia and quickly took flight after awakening.
Richwalski used a decibel meter to measure the sound of the owl’s wingbeat and determined its flight was quiet enough for it to safely be released.
The owl hovered for a moment while the aviary roof was retracted, gained speed and then flew out into the wild.
“It feels so, so good. I think my heart finally started beating again. The nervousness was starting to overtake the excitement, but once I saw him fly out that opening in the roof, it just was, it was a sight to see. It was so fun,” said Richwalski, who has cared for the owl since picking him up at the construction site.
Karla Bloem, executive director of the Minnesota-based International Owl Center, said imping has been practiced by falconers “for eons” and is a very effective treatment.
“I’ve never heard of it not lasting, because you use some pretty good stuff when you’re doing imping,” said Bloem, who has studied great horned owls for nearly three decades.
She added that it would be OK if a couple of the grafted feathers fell out. The bulk of them just need to stay put until the owl can grow new ones in the coming summer months.
“And now it just needs to figure out, ‘whoa, I’m back in the big world again, hunting,’” she said. “Find a territory … you know, find one of the opposite sex and settle down and have kids.”
Utah
Utah Weather: Increasing wind and fire dangers this weekend with a colder and wetter pattern arriving Sunday
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Happy Friday, Utah! Our Friday afternoon will feature pleasant conditions across the area.
Today’s weather: Sunshine and pleasant temps
Daytime highs will warm into the upper 70s for our Friday afternoon. Southwest Utah will see daytime highs in the low to mid 90s Friday afternoon.
Tommorow’s weather: Stout cold front
An approaching cold front will bring some extra clouds and gusty southwest winds to the state for our Saturday. A Fire Weather Warning has been issued for Grand County along with most southern Utah south of I-70 Saturday.
West and southwesterly winds will be sustained between 15-25 MPH on Saturday with wind gusts between 35-50 MPH. The gusty winds and relative low humidity levels will lead to an elevated fire danger across southern parts of the state.
A few isolated showers will develop Saturday across portions of central and eastern Utah, with partly cloudy skies developing across northern Utah. Daytime highs on Saturday will warm into the lower 70s across the Wasatch Front. Highs will warm near 90° across southwest Utah.
Looking ahead: Frost and freeze concerns
The cold front moves through Saturday evening, bringing a deeper surge of cooler conditions to Utah late this weekend. Daytime highs will only be in the 50s on Sunday and Monday. The core of the storm arrives Sunday bringing widespread rain showers across northern Utah.
As colder air rotates into the state Sunday evening, rain showers will likely change over to snow showers for our mountain locations across the state through Monday morning. Snow levels look to drop as low as around 6,000 FT, including some mountain valleys.
Get the latest Salt Lake City weather forecasts. View live doppler radar, & closings from the ABC4 Utah weather team.
Some light to moderate snow accumulations looks possible for the mountain valleys and mountain areas, with a better shot of seeing 6″+ for places like the Upper Cottonwoods and the Western Uintas. The good news is that road temperatures will be quite warm, so no major travel impacts are expected for most areas. Still, could see the accumulations on elevated surfaces by early Monday morning.
We will likely have to deal with a few mornings of frost and freeze concerns for some of our valleys into early next week. Currently, looks like the period to watch will be Monday morning and again on Tuesday morning.
High pressure builds behind this system by the middle of next week bringing the return of sunshine and moderating temperatures to Utah.
Stay with us for the latest updates from our 4Warn Weather forecast team on News4Utah+ and on abc4.com/utah-weather. We are Good4Utah!
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