Should Ahmad Hardy have got more second-half carries in Missouri football’s Gator Bowl loss to Virginia. Eli Drinkwitz explains why he didn’t.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ahmad Hardy was four yards short of breaking Missouri football’s single-season rushing record as the clock hit triple-zeros in the first half of the Gator Bowl.
The consensus All-American and Doak Walker Award finalist ended up entering the Mizzou record books, breaking the previous mark set by Cody Schrader in 2023 by taking 15 carries for 89 yards in the Tigers’ 13-7 loss to Virginia in the Gator Bowl on Saturday to reach 1,649 rushing yards on the season. He needed to surpass 1,627 yards to surpass the official program-high.
But, as Virginia (11-3) flipped a four-point halftime deficit into a Gator Bowl victory in the second half, Hardy didn’t see a touch until the 4:28 mark of the fourth quarter.
Why?
Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz was asked for the reason in his postgame press conference. Hardy did not appear to have an injury, and the head coach indicated that it was situational rather than by design. His full answer:
“I think they had the ball for the first 12 minutes of the third quarter,” Drinkwitz said. “We came out, we threw an out route to Kevin Coleman that we missed. We handed off the jet sweep to Kevin Coleman that got us some yardage, and then we missed the third-down conversion, and that was the end of the third quarter, if I remember right. I think it was fourth-and-1 (on the next drive), and we punted there.
“ … I think the first drive of the fourth quarter was backed up and we went — Jamal (Roberts) was backed up, we went run, run, and then we tried to run it again, and we ended up being short. We had a go-for-it call, but we jumped offsides and then the next time we touched it (Hardy got the ball). So, I mean, it wasn't designed that way. It just, we only had six plays, I think.”
Drinkwitz’s recollection of events is about right, but slightly muddled.
Virginia had the ball for 10 minutes, seven seconds after starting with the ball in the second half. The Wahoos capped the 19-play behemoth-of-a-series with a 2-yard touchdown run that proved to be the go-ahead score.
After true freshman Missouri quarterback Matt Zollers threw a pick three plays from scrimmage later, the Cavaliers extended their lead with a three-minute field goal drive, meaning the ACC regular-season champions had the ball for more than 13 minutes in the third quarter.
UVA also had the ball for essentially the opening four minutes of the fourth quarter, and when the Tigers took back over on offense, standout backup tailback Jamal Roberts — who finished with 11 carries for 56 yards and the Tigers’ only touchdown — took the next two carries for a total of 7 yards.
Mizzou again stalled out on its first set of downs on that drive, as right tackle Keagen Trost jumped for a false start on fourth-and-inches, forcing Mizzou into a punt from inside its own 10-yard line.
The Tigers ran nine total plays with its offense over a near-26-minute span between Hardy’s carries.
Hardy carried the ball on each of Mizzou’s next four plays, totalling 25 yards of forward progress and breaking the Tigers’ single-season record.
Missouri had managed just 17 yards of total offense in the second half until those carries.
Hardy, who narrowly missed out on consensus All-American status by earning first-team recognition from four of the five NCAA-recognized selectors for the honor, has announced that he will return to Mizzou next season.
He has two remaining years of eligibility but will be draft eligible as a third-year player after the 2026 college football season.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Why didn’t Ahmad Hardy get more carries in Missouri’s Gator Bowl loss?
Category: General Sports
