Utah football hires Mark Atuaia as RB coach, Micah Simon as WR coach

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah football's reset of its offense continues.

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

On Thursday, Utah formally announced that former Washington State associate head coach and running back coach Mark Atuaia was hired on to be the team's newest running back coach.

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

Both coaches previously played football at BYU and have coached with Beck in previous coaching stops, including at BYU and Virginia with Atuaia, and at Syracuse and New Mexico with Simon. As such, Beck has a pair of coaches he's worked with and is familiar with as the team looks to rebuild a Utah offense that ranked near last for the 2024 season.

The news of their hiring became official, though, after they'd already been busy at work sending out recruiting offers to players in the transfer portal, with several of the athletes tagging the two coaches in their social media posts.

Already, Utah has secured the commitment from former New Mexico starter quarterback Devon Dampier, with the potential to have other players follow him to Salt Lake City.

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

Atuaia is a well-loved position coach wherever he goes — with community involvement and investment as a major tenet of who he is — and has extensive experience coaching up several talented running backs over the years.

The long-time running back coach got his start at BYU as a student assistant from 2005-11 before accepting a running back coaching position from 2013-15. From there, Atuaia spent six seasons at Virginia with former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall and then as a running back coach, again, at Washington State since 2022.

Simon, too, had a playing career at BYU before being hired on as an offensive analyst at Syracuse in 2022. From there, Simon went to Northern Colorado as a wide receiver coach in 2023 before a one-year stint in the same position at New Mexico.

With the change, Utah has moved on from former running back coach Quinton Ganther, who is expected to return to the NFL, and former wide receiver coach Alvis Whitted.

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