Eddie Johnson is not the only former Ute to have a record in the books that is over 30 years old. One of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play for Utah has several still in tact with no prospects of them being broken anytime soon. However, what amazes Scott Mitchell most about his time playing football isn’t all the records he set, his high profile recruitment, or his long NFL career, but the fact he was simply able to play at all. Being able to say he fulfilled a dream he had as a little boy for the amount of time he did still leaves him in wonderment long since he broke his last huddle.

“The thing that always sticks out in my mind is that I was able to do it,” Mitchell said. “I think of growing up as a kid and I had these dreams of playing football. I loved football and I loved to play sports. Now as I get older it’s not like ‘oh, I was really awesome, I was really good’- it’s just a really cool thing that I could do it and I could live my dreams I had as a kid.”

Mitchell’s career at Utah started off with a bang before he even took his first collegiate snap. As a star at Springville High School in Utah, Mitchell was catching many school’s eyes and rising to the top of their “most desired” lists. With that said, everyone and their dog already knew he was destined to go to BYU just a few minutes down the road from where he grew up.

“My whole life there wasn’t a question ever that I wasn’t going to go to BYU,” Mitchell said. “I grew up 15 minutes from BYU, I was the biggest BYU fan in the world. I was related to LaVell Edwards, my parents went to BYU, I had ties to some of their former alumni- Gifford Nielson. I mean, when I was younger I went to football camps at Utah State and Gifford Nielson was the guy who took me there. I was his roommate when he was playing professional football for the Houston Oilers. I had deep, deep ties and a passionate love of BYU.”

But recruiting is an interesting game- even back in 1985 before dedicated recruiting sites like 247 and many others existed. As the offers rolled in what seemed like Mitchell’s pre-ordained destiny to go to BYU got more and more cloudy until he was no longer sure what he should do.

“The first letter I got was from UCLA. I was recruited by Colorado who was really good then and Stanford. There were these schools that were well-known and they were prestigious and they were like ‘hey, we like you and want you to come here’. That was a cool thing for me to have everyone think of me so highly and I had always thought I was going to go to BYU. Everyone thought that. Being a quarterback, being LDS it seemed like there was no other choice. It’s not even a question, but as I was being recruited I would go and listen to these coaches or people would call me and they would have- back then it was really different. I talked to all these different alumni from all these different schools and I’d go on these visits. Every time I went on a visit I would be like ‘well, that’s where I want to go’ and honestly when it happened I started to not know where to go. I was really confused. It was a really difficult and pressure-filled time in my life.”

When faced with difficult decisions in life people have many different approaches. Some get lost in nature, others look to their lucky eight ball for direction, many meditate, even more seek advice from others they respect, and a few will binge eat for answers. Mitchell chose a much higher power in God, who he recalls answered his prayers surprisingly fast.

“LaVell Edwards came to my house December 1, 1985 and sat there in my living room and said ‘you are our number one recruit’,” Mitchell recalls. “Mike Holmgren who was the quarterback coach at the time said ‘you come to BYU and you’ll be an All-American, you’ll compete for the Heisman Trophy, you’ll be an amazing player here.’ Monday night before Signing Day, which was on a Wednesday, I needed some help so I started to pray. I’m in the middle of praying in my room and mom calls down to my room in the basement and she said ‘Jim Fassel is on the phone.’ I go ‘I don’t want to talk to him’- I’m trying to get an answer to my prayer. I reluctantly took the phone call, didn’t listen to a word he said, and then halfway through our conversation I had this overwhelming sense of peace come over me. I knew Utah was where I needed to go to school. It was powerful to me because of where I lived. To have that kind of conviction and it was that for me- this is where I needed to go to school.”

With the ink dried and most of Utah Valley absolutely scandalized, Mitchell made his way 45 minutes north on I-15 to the Utes, but that is far from the end of his story. While many great and exciting athletes came through Utah during the ‘80’s the teams themselves left a lot to be desired. They were plagued with living in the blue-tinted shadow of their rivals to the south with few prospects of ever getting out of it. As Mitchell learned early and often lamented while he was there it was no easy feat playing for Utah and trying to pull them out of their football slump.

“My whole career it was frustrating because I just wanted to win and we never won,” Mitchell said. “It was just a struggle every year to be above .500. It was hard in that regard because the year after I go to Utah Ty Detmer goes to BYU and BYU goes to bowl games and wins the conference. He wins the Heisman Trophy and I would have been playing at BYU at that time. I would have won the Heisman Trophy more than likely because I would have been right in that situation. That was hard at that time in my life. It was really hard, really frustrating and there were times I questioned whether I made the right choice.”

Age and the wisdom that seems come with it has Mitchell seeing his career a little differently now than he did in the moment and he says he would take nothing back if given the chance.

“As I’ve gotten older and looked back on my life- it’s not so much what I did, but the person I’ve become,” Mitchell said. “I decided what was important to me and I made that discovery when I was at the University of Utah. That has governed all of my decisions and how I’ve lived my life since then. I can see how it was the absolute best thing for me at that time in my life and it’s been an invaluable part and invaluable experience to go through and learn. It’s become the foundation of who I’ve become in my life.”

Despite the Utes’ struggles as a whole, Mitchell was still putting up numbers and doing it as a rare left-handed quarterback. Mitchell ended his time at Utah with an astounding 8,981 career passing yards, 4,322 passing yards for a single season, 620 passing yards for a single game in 1988 against Air Force, and 69 passing touchdowns- all putting him soundly in first place in Utah’s record books for the foreseeable future.

The next step for Mitchell was the National Football League where he was drafted in the fourth round in 1990 to the Miami Dolphins. He would spend three seasons behind NFL legend Dan Marino before making his way to the Detroit Lions. He also spent some time with the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals before calling it a day after 12 years of service. Like his career at Utah, Mitchell’s NFL career didn’t turn out completely how he wanted it to, but as he learned later the grass isn’t always greener either.

“I’m not disappointed about anything in my career other than I wish I could have played forever,” Mitchell said. “All the good and bad that happened- it was incredible. I had a conversation with Jeff George who was the first pick of the draft in 1990. We were in the same draft class and for years I was so envious of Jeff George because he was the first pick of the draft and he got to go play and I got stuck behind Dan Marino. Jeff George goes ‘I was so envious of you and your career because you were behind Dan Marino and you were tutored, and educated, and you really learned how to be a pro. I never had that in my career.’ We laughed about it because we had both been envious of each other to some degree in our careers.”

Mitchell says the key to making his career last so long in the NFL despite not always playing as much as he would have liked to was keeping the mindset that he was going to be the starter- even if he knew that wasn’t always going to be true.

“When I first got to the NFL I was so disappointed being stuck behind this guy (Dan Marino), but I had made the choice when I was drafted that whether I liked it or not this was my opportunity and I needed to make the most of it,” Mitchell said. “It’s what I got, it’s what I had. I went to the Dolphins with the mindset that I was going to be the starter and people laughed at me because it was Dan Marino. There is no way I would have made it in the NFL ever, even in that first year, had I not had that mindset. I love sports not because of what you accomplish, but what you find out about yourself. I think everyone should be able to have that- it’s a privilege to play and to be put in situations that are challenging- that we sometimes fail at or it’s not as great of an accomplishment as it could have been/should have been. We find out who we are and what we are made of through these opportunities and I’m not saying it’s the only way you can learn about life, but man it’s a great place to find out who you are and what you are really made of.”

Finding himself through the challenges of football lead to some of Mitchell’s best memories as a Ute including some sweet revenge in 1988 against the big, bad “Blue Meanies” to the south.

“I remember the first time I played in a game,” Mitchell said. “It was against San Diego State and we just marched straight down the field. The first time I’m ever in a college game- my redshirt freshman year we march down the field and score a touchdown. And we go down for another touchdown and I just remember that moment. It was kind of a cool moment because it was the first time. We played Wisconsin that same year and beat them on a last second field goal and I played the whole second half of that game. That was a big game because it was a big time program and it was on the Armed Forces Network, which at the time was essentially shown around the world. That was pretty cool. Then of course- beating BYU. I don’t know that there is a better moment than that? We were never supposed to beat them and they were our big brother who always picked on us and always put us in our place. We were younger, weaker and inferior to our big brother, but to beat them and beat them soundly- it wasn’t a fluke. We put it to them. For me it was extra special because I had a lot of people that were really nasty about how they felt about me after I decided not to go to BYU.”

Mitchell says he missed EJ’s high-five with one of BYU’s cheerleaders but has seen it since. To him, it’s those kinds of moments that make rivalries so magical and electric. He admits that even to this day he still has some people from the Cougar crowd who don’t like him much after choosing the enemy over BYU 30-plus years ago.

“You just love those spontaneous reactions in sporting events,” Mitchell said. “The cool part was he gave it back to EJ. He was a great teammate and a great player. He was a spectacular running back and had an amazing day that day. I love rivalries. I love competing. I love when it’s healthy and I love it when it hurts- when the team that loses- it hurts. I don’t like it when it gets personal, when it gets nasty and maybe that’s just how rivalries have to be? I don’t know, but it’s nice when the winner of the rivalry wins the conference or the winning of the game has special meaning. That’s when rivalries are really good.”

With the tables completely turned from how they were when Mitchell was growing up in Utah and playing for the Utes he says he’s not that surprised that his alma mater is sitting in its current position. Mitchell saw the potential boiling under the surface of what Utah could be- it just took the right visionary to take them to the Promise Land.

“I saw it when I was being recruited,” Mitchell said. “I saw the potential of what Utah was. That was part of the appeal for me. The campus, the fan base is passionate. It had all the makings of- it’s a great location to go to school and it needed the right people to see that vision and they got it. It really started with Ron McBride when he came back and he figured out how to recruit the right players there. There was a certain toughness to the players he brought into the program, but there was also a level of skill too. Anytime you can compete with teams at the line of scrimmage, but it’s not just on offense, it’s on defense too. It’s both sides of the ball- you have a chance. If you can’t compete and you’re just getting blown off the ball on both sides of the ball you have no choice. I think that was the biggest difference was this toughness that he brought to players. They started to believe and they started to recruit in a way that was competitive for the conference. He really did an amazing job. It’s been added to and built upon from what he did, but he really is the guy who got it started. He was at Utah my freshman year as the offensive line coach and was familiar with the program and what it would take to build it. He was a guy who was well respected, and had a lot of great contacts that were able to find those players whether it was junior colleges or other places. He just really understood how to recruit. He was not only able to find tough players, but project what they could eventually become. He would recruit guys as an athlete rather than a specific position and then give them time to develop.”

With the Utes continuing to reach new heights and trend upward Mitchell is happy to continue being a part of a program he feels shaped his entire life for the best. Whether its been serving on the Crimson Club Board, playing quarterback in the Alumni Game every spring, or rocking a headset as the color analyst on game days beside Bill Riley on ESPN 700, Mitchell is thrilled to continue having deep roots with his school as they keep building their identity in the college football world.

“The University of Utah has a special place in my heart because of what it helped me develop in myself,” Mitchell said. “I’ve always believed it could become what it is today so in some small form or fashion it’s nice to be involved. It’s nice to be a part of where it’s going and I love broadcasting football games and sharing my wealth of knowledge and understanding of football while hopefully doing it in a way that people do understand, but is also entertaining. It’s really fun to pay close attention to what is happening on both sides of the ball. I’ve always been a huge fan. In fact, it’s a little bit hard- Bill Riley has said a couple of times ‘you can’t throw your headset in the radio booth’. Trying to be a little bit objective, but being a fan too and having that excitement and passion of a fan but having to learn to temper a little bit of my emotions has been fun.”

Being a Ute is challenging. It’s not for the faint of heart. It requires hard work, and understanding that sometimes despite your best efforts things may not turn out how you want them to, but for Mitchell that’s what he’s always enjoyed about sports and being an athlete. BYU would have been the easier choice for Mitchell, it’s true, but missing out on the challenge of helping to build a program that was struggling is not something he would trade. For Mitchell it’s what being a Ute is all about.

“I really think the evolution of the program where it’s kind of been a little bit of the underdog,” Mitchell said. “It’s been the guy on the outside that is just trying to get that respect and admiration and is able to do it. You look at the humble beginnings- the humble stretch of the program. To see that kind of ‘stick-with-it-ness’ and determination to overcome all odds, or impossible odds, and then watching it break onto a national scene and start to gain some respect in the country. To win a Fiesta Bowl and to win a Sugar Bowl against an Alabama and then to be invited into the inner circle- the Pac-12 and to kind of struggle again and be the outsider and have to figure it out. It’s that determination to reach for the stars and to never think that anything is impossible. I’ve always liked the underdog and I love the story of when the underdog finally wins. I feel like that is what means to be a Ute.”

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