Greg McElroy defends his ranking of Ahmad Hardy on Top 10 college football running back list

Amid a long offseason, analyst Greg McElroy ranked his top 10 running backs in college football. That included boldly ranking Missouri Tigers running back Ahmad Hardy as the ninth best running back in college football despite only playing one previous season at the Group of Five level.

McElroy defended his ranking of Hardy on Always College Football. While he admitted that he’s a tough running back to evaluate, what he showed in a season at ULM and the upside he offers to Missouri.

“Difficult to make a rock-solid evaluation of this young man,” Greg McElroy said. “Because of the step up in competition that he will experience, but it is Ahamad Hardy of Missouri. Now, this is a guy that was remarkably underrecruited. Okay? He’s from a small town in Mississippi. There weren’t a ton of opportunities for him to kind of get noticed and get checked out, but was outstanding as a high school prospect. Got a little overlooked because he’s not the biggest guy in the world, he’s just 5’10”, but he’s a guy that kind of runs with an edge. He runs with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.”

Coming out of high school at Lawrence County in Mississippi, Ahmad Hardy was an unranked recruit. In one season at ULM, he rushed for 1,351 yards on 237 attempts. That’s 5.7 yards per carry. He also had 13 rushing touchdowns. Beyond all of that, McElroy was impressed with his ability to break tackles.

“As a result, in his time at Louisiana-Monroe, he had eight 100-yard games in his true freshman year. He had two 200-plus yard games and went for over 1,350 yards and 13 touchdowns last year. Once you move beyond the initial stat profile, you realize just how hard this guy is to bring down and how many missed tackles this guy is able to create — how often he kept continuing to churn for yards after contact. He was among the most productive backs in the country when it came to yards after contact,” McElroy said.

“And as far as the guys who had the amount of missed tackles last year, only Ashton Jeanty at Boise State and Cam Skattebo had more. They also played more games than Ahmad Hardy did. So, he’s one of just seven running backs in the country to end the year with over 1,000 yards after contact.”

One key to the ranking is the situation that Ahmad Hardy transferred to at Missouri. There, McElroy thinks he’ll thrive in the Tigers’ run scheme.

“The other thing that you have to love about Ahmad Hardy is the offense that he’s going to play in. At Missouri, they do so much when it comes to the stretch zone. They love to hit that stretch zone. They love to hit it wide. If you can get on the perimeter, it’s very difficult for the defenders to find the right avenue and the right angle to bring that running back to the ground. When you have a guy like Hardy that’s strong, physical, and can run through contact, oftentimes you’re going to have to run through that contact,” McElroy said.

“Because the angles that you create with that scheme make it extremely hard on the defender. I think it’s a great marriage. This is a system that is made to create highly successful and productive running backs. I think Hardy will be next in line. I love the fit. I love the marriage, which is why Ahmad Hardy breaks into the top nine here in our top running back list.”

Ahmad Hardy is going to begin his time with Missouri against Central Arkansas on August 28th. SEC play then kicks off on September 20th against South Carolina.