Welcome to the series, ‘What’s The Trend,‘ which highlights the biggest risers and fallers in the Mizzou Football world each week! Mizzou is coming off an exciting win vs. Mississippi State and will look to stay hot and finish the season with 10 wins. Here are this week’s trends:
On the Rise
Ahmad Hardy, Ahmad Hardy, Ahmad Hardy
If he would’ve had the performance he had with just one touchdown, he would’ve been on this list. So that’s why I wrote his name three times.
300 yards, three touchdowns. It doesn’t get
much better than that. Hardy just put his name back into the Heisman long shot conversation and if he can put together two more of those performances in the Tigers’ final three matchups, then you might need to remove “long shot” from that statement.
Defensive touchdowns!
Mizzou’s defense has been solid all season, but they haven’t done too much in terms of turnovers and touchdowns. That changed on Saturday as the Tigers were able to secure two defensive touchdowns to bolster their lead. Ultimately it was the back-to-back defensive touchdowns that gave Mizzou the cushion to pull out the win.
Very big game for Toriano Pride in what was the last home game of his collegiate career.
The 10-win potential is still there
Following the A&M loss, there were a lot of questions whether Mizzou’s season was going to unfold, and it might start losing games it shouldn’t. The Tigers went out on Saturday and showed that they aren’t done. Two more wins+a bowl game gives Missouri a chance. Drinkwitz and the players want it, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
On the Decline
What’s next?
With the loss against A&M, the College Football Playoff hopes are pretty much out of the door.
So instead of fighting for a spot in the playoff, Mizzou is now fighting for a good bowl game and a potential 10-win season. Things could be worse, but definitely not an ideal situation considering where the Tigers were just a few weeks ago.
Continued discussion about Drinkwitz future + NIL
Drinkwitz has been vocal this week about not only his future, but also about how Missouri struggles in the NIL category. While it sounds like Drinkwitz has been talking like he is going to stay, you hate to see your head coach and team involved in so much drama. All over X and instagram you see Drinkwitz says this, Drinkwitz says that, but sometimes in a program you just need to lay low and stay away from the headlines.
What’s up with Marquis Johnson?
It seems like Marquis Johnson is likely to head to the portal as he has accumulated just 22 snaps over the past two games. It seems like Zollers naturally prefers Olugbode — and he might just be better — but Johnson really hasn’t seen much work since Pribula was in under center. Who knows, he could come back when Pribula does but one thing is for certain, Marquis Johnson is not being used to his potential right now.
