Party, Hardy! Mizzou stays hot with fierce rushing attack in win over Louisiana

For a Week 3 game in Columbia, the weather was a little unusual. Temperatures on Faurot Field rose above 100 degrees before Missouri took the field Saturday. Changing the kickoff from 3 p.m. to noon helped with the heat, but the conditions were still scorching with the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns in town.

Mizzou was as hot as the weather, cooking up its opponent like a seafood boil in a 52-10 win a week before the start of SEC play for the Tigers. By the time of the game’s final play, the temperature on the field had reached 176 degrees, according to MU coach Eli Drinkwitz.

The Tigers’ defense brought plenty of its own heat, only allowing Louisiana to complete two passes for 4 yards all afternoon.

Ahmad Hardy was the executive chef of the offense. Name a snap, and he probably tore through the Louisiana defense on it. The sophomore running back rushed 22 times for a career-high 250 yards and three touchdowns, helping Mizzou out-rush Louisiana 427 yards to 117. The Tigers’ rushing total was the most in a game since 2017.

Hardy’s big day put him in seventh place on the single-game rushing list in Mizzou’s record books. Devin West has the team record with 319 yards versus Kansas in 1998.

“He’s a tough runner. He has a refusal to get tackled,” Drinkwitz said of Hardy. “Other than maybe the counter play down there on the first drive, I think he hit every hole the way he wanted to. He just got a game ball, so pretty special performance by him.”

After Hardy set the tone Saturday with a 7-yard rush to the left to take a 7-0 lead on Missouri’s first drive, he surpassed that the second time. Already up by 25 points, he rushed to a wide-open gap on the right side for a 71-yard TD with 5:41 remaining in the second quarter, giving MU a commanding 35-3 lead.

“Every time I touch the ball, I’m thinking I’m going to score,” Hardy said. “I was just trying to get in the end zone.”

His day still wasn’t over. To open up the third quarter, Hardy took six of the 10 snaps on the drive, piling up another 64 yards, culminating in a 7-yard touchdown up the middle to increase the Missouri lead to 45-10. After that, he went to the bench for the remainder of the game along with the rest of the first-team offense.

Last year with Louisiana Monroe, Hardy lost to Louisiana 37-23. This time around, he got a a bit of revenge.

“I was telling the guys this was a little personal,” Hardy said. “I wasn’t really focused on the yards, I just wanted to beat them.”

Quarterback Beau Pribula threw his first interception of the season at the 8:22 mark of the first quarter, as outside linebacker Cameron Whitfield picked off a pass that missed the mark for receiver Daniel Blood. On the previous drive, Pribula narrowly avoided a blitz and completed a short pass to running back Jamal Roberts that resulted in a 39-yard touchdown.

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“The thing about Beau is when he makes a mistake, he owns it and moves on,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s part of growing.”

Aside from a couple of missed targets and the interception, Pribula didn’t make many errors. He tallied 174 passing yards and two touchdowns with a 68% completion rate. Freshman Matt Zollers took over with 8:01 left in the third quarter, throwing just two passes the rest of the way.

Pribula’s other passing touchdown went to Marquis Johnson on an 11-yard strike with 2:38 remaining in the first half. The ball popped out of Johnson’s hands near the goal line, allowing the Ragin’ Cajuns to take it the opposite way for a 99-yard return. After review, it was ruled the ball had crossed the line before it was jarred loose, but it wasn’t an acceptable play for Drinkwitz.

“We had a close call right there with Marquis extending the ball at the goal line, which we don’t do,” he said. “That’s something we don’t do.”

Louisiana’s only real success offensively was an 84-yard touchdown from running back Zylan Perry at the 3:27 mark of the second quarter. The Missouri defense hardly let freshman quarterback Daniel Beale find his rhythm, holding him to just 5 passing yards and one completion in eight attempts.

After backup quarterback Lunch Winfield entered the game in the second quarter, little changed. The sophomore completed just 1 of 6 for minus-1 yard. Mizzou rattled both signal-callers with its stout defense. Louisiana converted just one of its 11 third-down attempts.

“I thought we did a good job this week,” cornerback Drey Norwood said. “Coach (Corey) Batoon had a good plan for us on the passing game, and we went out and were able to execute it.”

Defensive end Damon Wilson II and linebacker Khalil Jacobs each picked up a sack. Of the eight tackles for loss Mizzou accumulated, defensive end Zion Young and linebacker Josiah Trotter each had two.

With the big early lead, Mizzou was able to find playing time for freshmen. Running back Marquise Davis, who didn’t appear last week against Kansas, took 20 snaps for 113 yards rushing, including a 2-yard touchdown run with 7:02 remaining.

“On the field, he’s a downhill runner, good freshman,” Hardy said of Davis. “He’s carried the ball pretty good on his inside zones, handcuffing the ball (and) doing what he’s supposed to do.”

Now, the focus for Missouri is on No. 11 South Carolina next Saturday at Memorial Stadium. While Drinkwitz was understanding of fans leaving at halftime given the heat, he wants all hands on deck for this one.

“That’s going to be an opening SEC game, and it needs to be much more rowdy, much more raucous, than the KU game,” Drinkwitz said. “You’ve got a really good football team. We need everybody to show up.”