Even before the upcoming reunion with his former BYU teammates, Utah linebacker Francis Bernard was hoping for a moment that would propel him into his senior season of 2019.
That opportunity came Saturday at Colorado, where Bernard played a major role in a 30-7 victory that helped give Utah a Pac-12 South championship.
In the context of Bernard’s two-school college career, his 10-tackle performance was unsurprising and unexpected. Anyone who watched him during his 2016 season as a BYU linebacker could have seen this coming. Yet he had played only a minor role for the Utes prior to Saturday, when he became needed after senior Chase Hansen was ejected for targeting in the first quarter.