BYU Assistant Chris Burgess To Take Assistant Coach Job at Utah

After seven years as an assistant coach under Mark Pope, BYU assistant Chris Burgess will take an assistant head coach position at Utah, his alma mater. The Salt Lake Tribune was the first to report the story and multiple sources confirmed the news to me Tuesday night.

Burgess was an assistant under Pope during his four years at UVU and three years at BYU. He played at Utah in the early 2000s after transferring from Duke. His oldest daughter is a volleyball player at the University of Utah.

Sources close to the situation told me that he will be the top assistant at Utah, something that wasn’t clear cut at BYU. He’ll get a chance to be the lead assistant at his alma mater and learn under a new head coach for the first time in his D1 coaching career. Burgess’ ultimate goal is to be a head coach, and learning under a new head man can expand his coaching tree and experience.

Burgess was BYU’s big man coach, something Mark Pope will likely want Burgess’ replacement to fill.

Burgess was involved in the recruitment of many BYU players, Collin Chandler being the most notable. Collin is leaving on a mission to Sierra Leonne this summer, and there will surely be a lot of chatter of his destination post mission. Burgess was a big piece in Collin’s recruitment, but Pope was the main piece. Collin cited Pope and the Big 12 when committing. Who’s to say what things will look like in two years, but I think Collin will stick with his BYU commitment.