Utah football hires new quarterbacks coach

Utes make another staff move as they round out Morgan Scalley's staff

Utah Utes head coach Morgan Scalley has made eight coaching changes since the end of the 2025 season. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

As Utah head coach Morgan Scalley rounded up assistants for his first-year coaching staff, one question remained throughout the process: with a new offensive coordinator coming in, who would be the Utes’ quarterbacks coach?

An answer to that question presented itself Thursday night, as ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Utah was set to hire veteran quarterback coach Ryan Gunderson.

Gunderson, who worked with new Utes offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven while on San José State’s staff, will join Utah after spending the past two seasons as Oregon State’s offensive coordinator. He‘s also served as the quarterbacks coach at UCLA and Oregon State.

Gunderson was the seventh hire Utah made since losing six assistants — including former quarterbacks coach Koy Detmer Jr. — to Kyle Whittingham and Michigan at the end of the 2025 season. He joins an offensive staff at Utah that also includes Jordan Gross (offensive line), Mark Atuaia (running backs), Luke Wells (tight ends) and Chad Bumphis (wide receivers).

The last time Gunderson worked alongside McGiven, they helped San José State win the 2020 Mountain West title, the program's first in 30 seasons. Gunderson was a Broyles Award nominee the year prior, as the Spartans ranked No. 4 in the nation in passing yards, averaging 338 yards through the air per game, with Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year Josh Love commanding the offense from under center.

During his time in Los Angeles, Gunderson helped set former Bruins quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson on a path to the NFL. Thompson-Robinson completed his UCLA career as the program’s record holder in total offense (12,536), completions (860), touchdown passes (88), passing yards (10,710) and quarterback starts (48). After ranking No. 6 in the country in completion percentage in 2022 (69.6%), Thompson-Robinson was drafted in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns.

Gunderson also tutored Dante Moore, currently the quarterback for an Oregon team competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship game.

Gunderson's two seasons as the Oregon State offensive coordinator were highlighted by a highly-productive 2024 campaign, in which the Beavers averaged 390.6 yards per game in 2024, including 189.2 on the ground.

Gunderson also served in a front office role at Nebraska as the director of football player personnel in 2015 and 2016. He played quarterback at Oregon State from 2004-07, during which he appeared in 13 games and threw for 645 yards and two touchdowns.