ORLANDO — Utah running back Micah Bernard knew the exact number of yards he needed to break the 1,000-yard mark ahead of Friday’s season finale in Orlando.
“Man, I’m trying to check it off. I’m trying so hard to check it off. Lack of production lately, but 78 yards to go, I believe. I mean, I need to do it. I got to,” Bernard said ahead of the game.
Near the end of the third quarter, on a two-yard gain, Bernard became the first Ute running back since Tavion Thomas to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
This season certainly wasn’t a dream ending for a player that truly exemplified what it means to be a “Utah Man,” but Bernard was able to check off a personal goal and etch his name into the record books as the 17th Ute to accomplish the feat in school history.
“It meant a lot. I knew how much I needed going into the game and I think after the first quarter I was like, OK, I think I need like 50 more (yards),” Bernard said. “So just to hit it, that was my goal in the beginning of the season, a thousand-yard rusher, so I’m glad I got to check it off my list.”
Bernard faced durability questions entering the season, and even at points during the season, Whittingham mentioned that he would like to see a maximum of 20 carries per game. Those concerns weren’t completely unfounded, as in more games than not, Bernard would come off the field after going down with a stinger or an injury, but he would always be back in, ready to go.
The senior played in all 12 games this season for the Utes.
Utah entered the season with a running back by committee approach, but Benard took complete control of the RB1 job early in the year. In Week 2 against Baylor, he rushed for 118 yards, then followed that performance up with a 118-yard day against Utah State, including a key 64-yard run. At Oklahoma State, he rushed for a career-high 182 yards, including another 60-plus-yard run.
He turned in his fourth 100-plus-yard performance in a loss at Arizona State, and was just nine yards short of the century mark in a loss to Arizona.
Bernard’s production started to slow down as the season went along, partly due to ineffective quarterback play that led teams to be able to key in heavily on the run with no consequence, but it started to pick up again against BYU, when he rushed for 78 yards.
In the next two games, Bernard had just 62 total yards and needed a big performance in the final game of the season to eclipse the 1,000 yard mark.
It was a grind-it-out type of game for Utah’s offense, and that held true personally for Bernard. One of the more solid rushing defenses in the Big 12 made him work for every yard — his longest run of the night was 12 yards — but carry by carry, he inched closer to his goal, finally breaking it as Utah broke its seven-game losing streak.
In a transfer-portal happy world, Bernard would have been well within his rights to leave Utah for another opportunity at some point in his career. He arrived in Salt Lake City in 2019, and while he was an important part of Utah’s 2021 and 2022 Pac-12 championship teams — rushing for 523 and 533 yards, respectively— he was always the secondary running back. Bernard did flirt with the transfer portal following the 2022 season, but quickly returned to Utah.
The game that encapsulates what Bernard meant to Utah is one that he would understandably rather forget.
In the most important game of his career — the 2022 Rose Bowl — the running back was called upon to play both ways after injuries to Utah’s cornerbacks forced him into his first-ever defensive action at the collegiate level.
Bernard tried valiantly, rushing for 31 yards and catching a touchdown on offense, but on defense against future NFL wide receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Marvin Harrison Jr. and future NFL quarterback C.J. Stroud, he was targeted early and often as Ohio State racked up 683 total yards of offense in a 48-45 win.
But that experience summed up Bernard’s time in Salt Lake City — someone who was always willing to do whatever he could to help out the team.
The crowning season of his career almost never happened.
Following the 2022 season, Bernard felt like he was “falling out of love” with football.
“I fell out of love with it. Just things not going your way. Things don’t always go your way, but I think I was just falling out of love with it on my body. My body’s getting beat up and that’s a big thing. Just so many injuries and knick-knacks, like, do I really want to continue?” Bernard said earlier this year.
But sitting on the sidelines after an off-the-field injury that caused him to miss 11 straight games in the 2023 season before he returned in the Las Vegas Bowl reinvigorated his love for the game.
“To just be taken away for three months, you start to feel like, dang, this my whole life. All I know is football. … So it just made me appreciate what I’m doing so much more. It made me have a bigger drive for this year,” Bernard said.
Bernard finally got his chance this season to be Utah’s lead back, and he responded with the best year of his career.
“He’s been huge this year. He has been the vast bulk and majority of our rush game this year. He’s by far got the most carries and the most production,” Whittingham said.
“And talk about a guy who maybe thought he was done playing football last year to what he accomplished this year is pretty impressive and we’re elated that obviously he was on our team this year and came back for this last year.