If Micah Bernard were to have it his way, he’d make a burner account.
For the last week, the senior Ute running back has scrolled through the fan base’s pain after Utah’s 23-10 home loss to Arizona. He’s seen the angry posts from some Utes fans on X, the app formerly known as Twitter.
Some, Bernard said, would’ve prompted a response if he had an anonymous account from which to fire back.
Others have made him laugh.
“I sit behind my phone, and I laugh,” Bernard said on Monday. “I wish I could tweet some people back and just have a ball. But I just sit there and laugh at them. I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ It’s just funny to me because, everybody has their own opinion, but they don’t know what’s actually going on there. I appreciate our fans — the real true fans that don’t say anything.”
While he wades through the fan base’s negativity on social media, Bernard is focused on fixing Utah’s offensive issues, particularly in the red zone. The Utes went 2-for-4 in the red area against the Wildcats, leaving them with their first loss of the season and a season-low 10 points. The senior running back did his part in the contest, logging 16 carries for 91 yards and an average of 5.7 yards per carry.
But Bernard and the Utes now have a chance to correct their errors this Friday. The running back pointed to the events of this past weekend as an example of what happened to the Utes a week ago. Alabama was upset by Vanderbilt. Minnesota defeated USC. Arkansas found a way to beat Tennessee.
Upsets are going to happen, he said. Now he expects Utah to get back to its winning ways.
“Everybody was down on us for losing that game,” Bernard said. “It’s just like college basketball, everybody can lose. ... I read some of the tweets. I see everything. I read what everybody says, but we know what we can do. And now (they) see it’s not easy to play college football. Anything can happen.”
Ute coach Kyle Whittingham echoed that same sentiment. He watched as the weekend of upsets, comebacks and blowouts unfolded in front of his eyes on Saturday. It prompted him to comment on it during his weekly news conference.
“You could be a good football team, not play well and get your butt beat,” Whittingham said. “Look at Alabama, you tell me that Vanderbilt has even close to the personnel that Alabama has? There’s no way. I mean look at the Minnesota (win). Do you think they have even close to the personnel that USC has? There’s illustrations all over the place where you can be a really good football team, but if you don’t perform and execute, you’re going to get beat.”
Utah has a lot to fix. Its defense missed more tackles than it’s used to, giving up 154 rushing yards and 5.4 yards per carry. Utah freshman quarterback Isaac Wilson threw two interceptions on offense.
Sure, the Utes (4-1, 1-1 Big 12) believe those issues are fixable, but they’ll have to showcase their improvements during their contest vs. Arizona State (4-1, 1-1) at 8:30 p.m. MT on Friday in Tempe, Arizona.
Winning is always a formula for success, and it can certainly calm down a fan base.
