Utah Football hires Mark Atuaia as RB coach and Micah Simon as WR coach

SALT LAKE CITY – The restart of Utah football continues.

After hiring offensive coordinator Jason Beck last week, Utah made some additional personnel changes on the offensive side of the ball, including hiring a new running back and wide receivers coach.

On Thursday, Utah officially announced that former Washington State assistant head coach and running backs coach Mark Atuaia has been hired as the team’s new running backs coach.

Additionally, Utah announced that former New Mexico wide receivers coach Micah Simon has also been hired for the same role with the Utes.

Both coaches previously played football at BYU and have coached with Beck at previous coaching stints, including BYU and Virginia with Atuaia and Syracuse and New Mexico with Simon. As a result, Beck has two coaches he has worked with and is familiar with as the team tries to rebuild a Utah offense that nearly finished last in the 2024 season.

However, news of their hiring became official after they were already busy sending out recruiting offers to players through the transfer portal, with several of the athletes tagging the two coaches in their social media posts.

Utah has already secured the commitment of former New Mexico starting quarterback Devon Dampier, with the possibility of other players following him to Salt Lake City.

Utah also sent out an offer to running back Wayshawn Parker, the No. 1 running back in the transfer portal, with the potential to follow his former coach, according to 247Sports. Parker would be a top priority to help build a running back room that only has Mike Mitchell returning from last season.

Atuaia is a popular position coach wherever he goes – community involvement and investment are his core tenets – and he has extensive experience coaching several talented running backs over the years.

The longtime running backs coach started as a student assistant at BYU from 2005 to 2011 before accepting a position as running backs coach from 2013 to 2015. From then on, Atuaia spent six seasons at Virginia under former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall and again as running backs coach at Washington State since 2022.

Simon also had a playing career at BYU before being hired as an offensive analyst at Syracuse in 2022. From there, Simon went to Northern Colorado as wide receivers coach in 2023 before spending a year in the same position at New Mexico.

With the move, Utah moves on from former running backs coach Quinton Ganther, who is expected to return to the NFL, and former wide receivers coach Alvis Whitted.