Over a month after losing both coordinators, Utah on Monday finally announced replacements for Dave Christensen and Kalani Sitake.
Aaron Roderick and Jim Harding were in-house promotions and will serve as co-offensive coordinators, while Utah brought John Pease out of retirement to fill its defensive coordinator vacancy. The Utes also promoted Dennis Erickson to assistant head coach/running backs coach, added special teams coaching duties to safeties coach Morgan Scalley’s title and hired Justin Ena to coach the team’s linebackers.
Roderick previously coached Utah’s quarterbacks while Harding coached the offensive line. Both coaches will continue to coach those respective positions.
Pease, a longtime college and NFL assistant, retired in 2005 but was hired by Whittingham in 2009 to coach Utah’s defensive line, a post he held for two seasons before retiring again.
Ena served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for FCS side Weber State last year, and previously was Southern Utah’s defensive coordinator.
The coaching moves come a few weeks after Whittingham signed a four-year extension, which put to rest rumors of a fractured program in Salt Lake City.
