Former New Mexico offensive coordinator Jason Beck is getting a substantial raise in his move to Utah.

Beck’s contract to call Utah’s offense is for three seasons and runs from Dec. 6, 2024, to Jan. 31, 2028, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by the Deseret News via a public records request.

Beck made $400,000 last season in Albuquerque, according to a USA Today database of college football assistant coach salaries, and effectively tripled his salary in his move to Salt Lake City.

Utah will pay Beck a base salary of $1.25 million in 2025, according to his contract. He will get a $100,000 raise in each year of his contract, earning a base salary of $1.35 million in 2026 and $1.45 million in 2027.

While it’s a step down from the $2,050,000 that made veteran offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in all of college football, Beck’s salary stacks up well in the Big 12.

Salary data isn’t available for private schools (BYU, TCU and Baylor), but Beck’s $1.25 million salary would have made him the third-highest-paid assistant coach in the league this season, behind Ludwig and Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley, who made $2 million in 2024.

For comparison, Mack Leftwich, who recently signed a deal to be Texas Tech’s offensive coordinator, is making $1 million in 2025, $1.1 million in 2026 and $1.2 million in 2027, according to a copy of his contract obtained by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Beck has been at Utah for just two weeks and has already made a massive impact on the Utes’ offensive revamp. Two staff members that have previously worked with Beck have been hired at Utah — running backs coach Mark Atuaia and receivers coach Micah Simon — and highly sought-after New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier followed Beck to Salt Lake City.

Dampier totaled 3,934 yards of offense in 2024 — 2,768 passing and 1,166 rushing — in Beck’s offense, which was the fourth-most-productive in the country, generating 484.2 yards per game. The sophomore quarterback has been the perfect fit for Beck’s spread offense, which features a lot of quarterback runs and run-pass options.

Under Beck’s direction, the Utes have added seven players from the transfer portal to the offensive side of the ball, including Dampier, Washington State freshman running back Wayshawn Parker (735 yards and four touchdowns) and Tulsa receiver Joseph Williams (30 receptions for 588 yards and five touchdowns in seven games).

Should Utah’s “school choice” program be allowed to stay put — or is it unconstitutional?

That’s the question that a judge is now weighing after spending several hours listening to oral arguments Thursday.

In the hearing, 3rd District Court Judge Laura Scott grilled attorneys for both the state and for Utah’s largest teacher union, the Utah Education Association, on the complex constitutional questions she must now unravel before issuing a ruling in the case — which she said she expects to hand down sometime in mid-to-late January. 

Earlier this year, the Utah Education Association filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Utah Fits All “scholarship program,” which the 2023 Utah Legislature created as an effort to offer “school choice” options by setting up a fund from which eligible K-12 students can receive up to $8,000 for education expenses including private school tuition and fees, homeschooling, tutoring services, testing fees, materials and other expenses. 

Utah’s largest teacher union files lawsuit against Utah Fits All school choice voucher program

In 2023, lawmakers appropriated about $42.5 million in ongoing income tax revenue to the program. Then this year they nearly doubled that ongoing funding by adding an additional $40 million. In total, the program uses about $82.5 million in taxpayer funding a year. 

That is, if the courts allow it to continue to exist. 

In its lawsuit, the Utah Education Association alleges it’s an unconstitutional “voucher” program that diverts money from Utah’s public school system — using income tax dollars that they contend are earmarked under the Utah Constitution for the public education system and should not be funneled to private schools or homeschooling in the form of the Utah Fits All scholarship program.

The Utah Constitution has historically required the state’s income tax revenue be used only for public education, though that constitutional earmark has been loosened twice — once in 1996 to allow income tax revenue to be spent on public higher education, and once in 2020 with voter-approved Amendment G, which opened income tax revenue to be used to “support children and to support individuals with a disability.” 

This year the Utah Legislature tried to remove that education earmark completely by putting Amendment A on the Nov. 5 ballot — but that effort failed after a judge voided the question because lawmakers failed to properly publish the proposed constitutional amendment in newspapers across the state. 

Attorneys representing state officials, the Alliance for Choice in Education (a group that the Utah State Board of Education chose to administer the program), and parents of students benefiting from the program urged the judge to dismiss the lawsuit. 

They argued the Utah Legislature acted within its constitutional constraints when it created the program. They contended that when Amendment G added to the Utah Constitution the word “children” as an allowable use for income tax dollars, that created a “broad” yet “not ambiguous” category that allowed Utah lawmakers to use the revenue for the Utah Fits All scholarship fund. 

Attorneys for the Utah Education Association, however, argued that when legislators put Amendment G on the ballot and pitched it to voters, their stated intentions did not include using the funding for private school vouchers. Rather, they argued it was characterized as an effort to narrowly open the revenue up to “social services” for children and people with disabilities. 

The judge repeatedly questioned state attorneys about their position, asking for clarity on the state’s interpretation of the Utah Constitution and whether it would allow Utah lawmakers the power to create a “shadow” or “parallel” education system that could funnel public dollars to private schools, which can select students based on religion, political beliefs, family makeup or other criteria. In contrast, Utah’s public school system must be free and open to all. 

Arif Panju, an attorney representing parents who intervened in the case to argue in favor of protecting the Utah Fits All program, argued parents have a “fundamental right” to exercise their “school choice” options. 

“The mere fact that they can use a private scholarship … does not transform those options into a shadow system,” Panju argued. 

But to Scott, that still didn’t answer her question. 

“I’m getting a little frustrated,” Scott said, adding that she wasn’t trying to debate school choice but rather she was trying to conduct a constitutional analysis. 

Ultimately, state attorneys conceded their position could open the door to a “parallel” or “shadow” system — however, they argued that’s not what is being debated in this case. They argued the Utah Fits All program was funded only after the Utah Legislature appropriately funded its education system, as required by the Utah Constitution (which does not set a specific threshold). 

When the hearing’s time ran out at about 4:30 p.m., Scott said she would take the issue under advisement, and she would not be ruling from the bench. 

“I’m hopeful for mid-to-late January,” she said, “but I’m not making any promises I won’t take the entirety of the 60 days” that she has to make a decision. 

SALT LAKE CITY — There’s frustration in the search to find the body of a missing member of the Utah National Guard, presumed murdered by his wife.

Matthew Johnson has been missing for nearly three months, and one of his fellow Green Berets said more should be done to find him.

“I think more can be done,” said John Hash, Utah Army National Guard 19th Special Forces Group.

Hash served with Johnson for 12 years in the Utah Guard’s 19th Special Forces Group and became friends outside of work. He was stunned to learn Johnson’s wife, Jennifer Gledhill, was arrested and charged for his murder.

“Having had Jen in our home before, you know, breaking bread with them, it turned out she’s responsible for his death; it was shocking, frankly,” Hash said.

That pain made it worse that Johnson’s body is still out there somewhere. Hash would like Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to get the National Guard out looking.

“I’d like to see the Governor commit openly to finding Matt, to bringing him home and giving him a proper burial,” he said.

A photo of Matthew Johnson and John Hash. (Courtesy John Hash)

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While the governor can call them out, the National Guard said that’s not what they do.

“This is a local law enforcement issue and not a National Guard or a state level issue. Human recovery is not a mission that’s specifically a National Guard mission or something that we specifically train for,” said Lt. Col. Chris Kroeber, Public Affairs Officer for the Utah Army National Guard.

It’s not necessarily an answer Hash wants to hear.

“You don’t give up, you leave no one behind, you bring him home, and he’s home, we just can’t find him, let’s find him,” Hash said.

Cottonwood Heights police, the agency in charge of the search for Johnson, said they didn’t have an update and are doing all they can to find him.

KSL TV contacted the Governor’s Office Thursday night but didn’t immediately hear back.