Sports

Why didn’t Ahmad Hardy get more carries in Missouri’s Gator Bowl loss?

December 28, 2025

Story byColumbia Daily TribuneCalum McAndrew, Columbia Daily TribuneSun, December 28, 2025 at 5:01 AM UTC·3 min readJACKSONVILLE, 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. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut, 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.

Why didn’t Ahmad Hardy get more carries in Missouri’s Gator Bowl loss?

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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. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“ … 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.

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Why didn’t Ahmad Hardy get more carries in Missouri’s Gator Bowl loss?

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Why didn’t Ahmad Hardy get more carries in Missouri’s Gator Bowl loss?

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