Counting Down Utah Football’s Best 2022 Plays: Stanford Cardinal
Aug 8, 2023, 9:04 AM
SALT LAKE CITY – We are 5 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. This week we look back on the Utes’ game against the Stanford Cardinal.
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. Fortunately, we are getting closer to the 2023 football season, but still have a weeks to go. In the meantime, let’s take a trip down memory lane to Utah’s Senior Day against Stanford.
2. that @Shaboinate3 to @loganhkendall connection! pic.twitter.com/cDMcBFzIcS
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) July 6, 2023
What Is Old, Is New Again
When you beat up on a team 42-7 there are usually a lot of highlights to choose from, but since it was Senior Day for the Utes, we’re going with sentiment.
Senior fullback Logan Kendall caught his first touchdown as a Ute in his last game at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Kendall, affectionately known as “The Rhino” did a lot of the dirty work opening running lanes in Utah’s successful 2022 season that could be easy to overlook to a casual football observer but was an important piece of the offensive cog.
The sideline reaction after Logan Kendall's first @Utah_Football TD 🥹 pic.twitter.com/3r9KNbE91D
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) November 13, 2022
It also happened to be freshman quarterback Nate Johnson’s first career touchdown pass as a Ute too.
The touchdown was set up by back-to-back trick plays for Johnson. In the first trick play, Johnson ran for 21 yards which set up Andy Ludwig to put both Johnson and starting quarterback Cam Rising in the game at the same time. Johnson was in at quarterback while Rising lined up as a receiver. The true freshman then took the snap and threw a 16-yard touchdown to Kendall giving the Utes a 35-7 lead with 1:37 remaining in the third quarter.
Needless to say, it was touching seeing a guy just starting his career and a guy wrapping up their career share a first together on Senior Night.
Michelle Bodkin is the Utah Utes Insider for KSLsports.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, Instagram, and Threads: @BodkinKSLsports
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