Counting Down Utah Football’s Best 2022 Plays: UCLA
Jul 3, 2023, 12:27 PM | Updated: Jul 9, 2023, 10:00 am
SALT LAKE CITY – We are 9 weeks out from the Utes’ season opener against Florida at Rice-Eccles Stadium and counting down the best play in each of Utah football’s 14 games in 2022 to celebrate. Today’s focus is on the UCLA Bruins.
While not every game went Utah’s way last season, they did enough to stamp their ticket to the Pac-12 Championship Game in Las Vegas, go back-to-back as conference champions, and earn their second berth in a row to the “Grandaddy of them All”.
Many believe Utah has a good chance of three-peating in 2023 due to the talent returning and the coaches’ aggressive approach in the Transfer Portal to address a few deficiencies. Unfortunately, we still have some time to go before we find out, but in the meantime let’s take a trip down memory lane, focusing on Utah’s game in Pasadena.
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CPIII Takes Another One To The House
October 8, 2022, was not a good day for the Utes in a season where ultimately there wasn’t too much to complain about. In all honesty, Pasadena hasn’t been too kind to Utah the last three times they’ve visited (two Rose Bowls and this regular season game) however, we really aren’t here to lament the bad parts.
There were two options for the play of the game against the Bruins and ironically enough both are kind of mirror plays that happened in back-to-back weeks. The one we didn’t go with was a Cam Rising touchdown and two-point conversion…spoiler alert that comes next week with a heaping dose of “unwavering belief”.
The play we did go with against UCLA was a Clark Phillips III 80-yard pick-six. Phillips III came up big for the Utes in back-to-back weeks with the interception and score against the Bruins, it was just too bad the biggest play of the game for Utah didn’t result in a win.
Pick 6 👀@Utah_Football takes one back with 31 seconds to go pic.twitter.com/rsaJjVukEq
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 8, 2022
It did however help cement Phillips III’s legend giving the talented cornerback his second pick-six on the year and fourth overall in his career.
Michelle Bodkin is the Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of both the Crimson Corner Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and The Saturday Show (Saturday from 10 a.m.–12 p.m.) on The KSL Sports Zone. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @BodkinKSLsports
