Mizzou runs through Louisiana, 52-10
There wasn’t much of a question what the outcome would be when the Missouri Tigers scheduled the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns.
There was even less by the end of the first quarter.
The Tigers cruised throughout the game, dominating in just about every facet, on the way to a 52-10 win against Louisiana at Faurot Field on Saturday.
The win moved the Tigers to 3-0 as they prepare for the start of SEC play next week when South Carolina comes to town for a 6 p.m. game.
“Outside of two plays, … I really felt like we dominated that game,” Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “The time of possession, the ability to rush for 400, two 100-yard rushers again and the ability to control the swing 8 was really good.”
The Tigers won the toss and deferred. The first moment they won Saturday, but far, far from the last.
The Ragin Cajuns tossed a 5-yard pass on the first play. But the Tigers held them to one completion for -1 yard for the rest of the day.
“We felt like we needed to be very aggressive and relentless in our coverage,” Drinkwitz said. “I don’t think we called much zone cover today.”
Ahmad Hardy
The Tigers forced the first of seven three-and-out defensive series and the Tiger offense, and Ahmad Hardy specifically, got to work.
Hardy put together five rushes for 39 yards on the Tiger offense’s opening drive, ending with a 7-yard touchdown.
It was the start of an incredible performance for Hardy as he put up 250 yards on 22 attempts and found the end zone three times.
“Every time I touch the ball, I’m thinking I’m going to score,” Hardy said.
Hardy’s performance was the seventh-best all time for a Mizzou runner. He was two yards behind Devin West’s 252 yards against Iowa State in 1998, and 69 yards behind West’s program-record 319 in the Border War that same season.
“He’s a tough runner,” Drinkwitz said. “He has a refusal to get tackled, he’s got really good vision, I think, other than maybe the counter play down there on the first drive, I think he hit every hole the way he wanted to. … Pretty special performance by him.”
It was also the first drive of dominance for the Tigers, a domination that would run throughout the box score.
Mizzou had 606 yards to Louisiana’s 121. The Tigers had 427 rushing yards to the Ragin Cajuns’ 117. And Missouri had 179 passing yards to Louisiana’s 4.
Look a little deeper and it continues.
Mizzou led in first downs 32-4, went 9-of-13 on third downs while Louisiana went 1-of-11, and ran 86 total plays to Louisiana’s 36. The Tigers averaged 7.0 yards per play compared to 3.4 allowed, led time of possession 42:51-17:09 and had eight tackles for loss to Louisiana’s four.
There wasn’t a moment when the Tigers weren’t in complete control.
After the first touchdown
The Tigers forced another three-and-out, a drive that lost Louisiana 2 total yards, then Mizzou’s offense started at its own 40.
Hardy rushed on the first four plays of the drive, gaining 23 yards. Then Beau Pribula hit Jordon Harris for a 20-yard gain.
Three plays later, Pribula hit Marquis Johnson for an 11-yard touchdown. Johnson caught the pass short of the end zone and reached for the line, leading to a moment of hope for Louisiana. The ball was knocked out of Johnson’s hands and returned 100 yards for what was called on the field as a Ragin Cajun touchdown. But after review, Johnson reached into the end zone for a Tiger score instead.
The Louisiana extra point unit ran off the south side of the field and the Tiger extra point crew ran onto the north side.
“We don’t do (that), it’s something we don’t do,” Drinkwitz said of reaching for the end zone.
Missouri’s defense forced another three-and-out and the Tigers took over at their own 41 with 39 seconds left in the first quarter.
Pribula hit Kevin Coleman on consecutive plays for a combined 28 yards to send the teams into the break.
The second quarter
Jamal Roberts broke free for a 17-yard run on the first play out of the break. Then Pribula faked a wide receiver screen to the left and kept a quarterback draw for a 14-yard touchdown, juking around one defender and running over another on his way into the end zone.
The Ragin Cajuns got their first first down on the next series, helped by a pass interference. But they punted once again and the Tigers started on their own 26 with 12:22 left, leading 21-0.
It took just five plays to extend the advantage to 28.
Pribula hit Johnson for 7 yards, then Hardy ran for 14. Pribula connected with Coleman for 1 yard, then Hardy garnered 13 more.
From the Louisiana 39, Pribula saw a free rusher bearing down on him and, with the defender wrapped around his ankle and pulling him down, flung a pass to Roberts. Roberts caught it, turned upfield and weaved through two defenders on the way to a 39-yard touchdown.
After another three-and-out, the Ragin Cajuns got their best opportunity of the game. Pribula threw a pass that was tipped up and caught by Cameron Whitfield, the first interception of his stellar first three games.
Louisiana started its next drive on the Tiger 22. But the Ragin Cajuns couldn’t do much with it, garnering just 5 yards on three plays and settling for a 34-yard field goal.
The kick was good and the Ragin Cajuns were on the board at 28-3 with 6:24 left before halftime.
The response
It took only two plays for the Tigers to extend the advantage again.
On the first, Hardy ran up the middle for 4 yards.
On the second, he ran to the right and broke free for a 71-yard touchdown.
Louisiana broke free for a long touchdown run of its own a couple of drives later. Zylan Perry ran up the middle and went 84 yards untouched to cut the lead to 35-10. It was one of the two plays, along with the interception, Drinkwitz said he didn’t feel the Tigers dominated.
But Missouri once again put up an extended drive to run out the final 3:22 and kicked a 22-yard field goal to go into halftime with a 38-10 lead.
The 1s come back out
The Missouri starters went back on the field for the opening drive of the second half. And Hardy got back to work. After posting 187 yards and two scores in the first half, he broke a run of 20 yards, then added another 25-yard rush before finding the end zone on a 7-yard carry.
That got him to 250 yards and ended his day.
“Last season, they beat us by 14 points,” Hardy said of Louisiana beating Louisiana-Monroe to finish the 2024 season. The then-true freshman had 172 yards and a touchdown in that game. “I was telling the guys this was a little personal. So I wanted to beat them. I wasn’t really focused on yards. I just wanted to beat them.”
With the Tigers up 45-10, the Tigers sent in the backups.
The rest of the way
Freshman Marquise Davis took the heavy load the rest of the game, building up 20 carries and 113 yards across the final 25 minutes of action.
He scored the Tigers’ remaining touchdown on a 2-yard run.
Freshman Brendon Haygood got his first career carry and totaled 12 yards on four attempts. Freshman Shaun Terry corralled a jet sweet shovel pass for his first career catch and made it 9 yards downfield.
Roberts ended with 46 rushing yards and 39 receiving yards, while Pribula ended completed 15-of-22 passes for 174 yards, two touchdowns through the air and one on the ground, while throwing one interception.
Up next
Missouri (3-0) will take on South Carolina (2-0) which is kicked off against Vanderbilt at 6:45 p.m.
