Utah QB Nate Johnson Issues Apology After UCLA Game

The Utah quarterback felt the need to apologize after the offense struggled in their most recent win over UCLA.

For the fourth straight week, the Utah Utes walked away from their game victorious despite missing notable players like quarterback Cam Rising who was reportedly expected to play but appeared to just suit up for a bit of gamesmanship. 

While missing Rising was a huge hit, the Utes defense came up even bigger against No. 22 UCLA. They got to quarterback Dante Moore seven times for sacks, and also forced him to throw a costly pick-six to start the game, and fumble a couple of times. That touchdown proved to be a big one, as the Utes' offense was held to just one score all day by the frisky UCLA defense. 

Something that quarterback Nate Johnson took to social media after the game to apologize about. 

I apologize for the way the game was played out credit to our defense for an amazing performance we will be better next week our offense is still awesome just things will get cleaned up see you guys next Friday 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

— Nate (@Shaboinate3) September 24, 2023

While Johnson was responsible for a touchdown pass, he and the offense had a quiet day accumulating just 219 yards of total offense. The Utes ended up accumulating 352 yards of punt yards thanks to the leg of Jack Bouwmeester, with six of them being downed inside the 20. 

While it wasn't a pretty win, it did get the now-ranked No. 10 Utes to a 4-0 record ahead of their matchup with No. 19 Oregon State on Friday. One that many are speculating Rising may finally return for.