New Utah WR Coach Chad Bumphis Is Excited About Potential Of Position Group

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – For the first time since 2016, Utah football has a new wide receivers coach after bringing in Chad Bumphis from Austin Peay.

This change comes after five years of Guy Holliday as the Utah WR coach but Kyle Whittingham decided to make a change and hired Chad Bumphis.

He is familiar with the program after spending the 2018 season as a graduate assistant working with the wide receivers, many who are still on the roster in 2021. Bumphis’ path to Utah is unique but Utes fans should be excited about this hire as his passion for the game and being a coach at Utah showed when he met with the media for the first time since joining the program. Bumphis was asked about what stood out about the job.

“The people, that was the biggest thing for me,” Bumphis stated. “I was here as a graduate assistant in 2018 and got to meet some of the people on staff in the facility, just the people in Utah in general. I understood what kind of program it was, what kind of program I was coming back to, the way the guys work, everything that’s expected of the guys and literally what I was used to same program basically from what I had in college. So I was really familiar with it. Got to know some of the guys who were still here so it was a no brainer, it was exactly what I was looking for.”

First time talking to new Utah WR coach Chad Bumphis. I love his energy. You can tell how passionate he is for the game and how much he wants to be at Utah.

He was in Michigan for 14 days settling into a new job before reaching out to Coach Whitt for the Utah job.#GoUtes

— Trevor Allen (@TrevorASports) March 22, 2021

Chad Bumphis Has Short Stint With Central Michigan Before Accepting Utah Job

After leaving Utah as a graduate assistant, Bumphis accepted the wide receivers coaching position at Austin Peay. In February 2021, Bumphis left for the same position at Central Michigan. Just two weeks into the new job, Bumphis was on the move to Salt Lake City.

“I was in Michigan for 14 days,” Bumphis said. “I just gotten there. I’m getting to know the players and and what’s funny for me is I had been in touch with Coach Whitt (Whittingham). So I’m just updating him on how my career was going, where I was, because I knew at some point I wanted to be back here. So I always stayed in touch with him. When I got the Central Michigan job, we actually talked and he congratulated me just telling me stay in touch. Two weeks later, this job came open. I reached out to him, reached out to some of the guys on the offense just to see what what he was looking for, if they had an idea of which direction it would go, and it worked out. So that Thursday, I interviewed and Saturday morning, I was on a plane. So it worked out just like I wanted basically.”

"We need to try and get him the ball more." – Kyle Whittingham on Solomon Enis.#GoUtes @kslsports

— Trevor Allen (@TrevorASports) March 22, 2021

That’s a lot of moving for anybody let alone a college football coach.

“It’s exactly what you think. But luckily for me, as blessed as I am my wife, she is really good about this,” Bumphis added. “Her dad’s been a longtime college football coach. So having somebody like that, who understands it, and she’s actually still back in Nashville, getting everything ready. It’s been a wild ride, you don’t expect it. I mean, I was getting settled in Michigan, thinking I’m gonna be here for a while and bam, this opportunity happened and jumped on it.”

Bumphis Hasn’t Had Issues Settling In To New Job With Recent WR Turnover With Utes

The job is still appealing despite losing talented receivers Bryan Thompson (Arizona State) and Samson Nacua (BYU) to the transfer portal.

“It hadn’t been difficult at all,” Bumphis mentioned. “I mean, in this program, you know it’s the next man up and those guys see that as an opportunity to get on the field. Obviously, we have the Covey’s in the room who’s been very successful, you got Solo (Solomon Enis), and we got some guys coming along. So, there wasn’t much stress, they saw it as an opportunity to get on the field and make plays. So obviously, we wish the best for those guys, but it’s about the guys in the building right now and they’re excited man, they get an opportunity to go out and show what they can do. So far we’re making the most of those opportunities. So we just got to keep going, keep building understanding what the situation is, and make plays. That’s all it’s about.”

Kyle Whittingham said that they will need to add one maybe two more WR's via the portal this summer.#GoUtes @kslsports

— Trevor Allen (@TrevorASports) March 22, 2021

The energy that Bumphis shows when talking to the media was evident. It’s clear why Kyle Whittingham hired him. His energy will be felt throughout and the future is certainly bright with this position group.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.