In a court of law, a lawyer’s closing argument can have a major impact when the verdict of the case remains in doubt.
It allows them to make one final appeal to the judge or the jury — and a strong closing
argument can swing the outcome.
Ahmad Hardy has that same opportunity Saturday in Fayetteville when Mizzou plays in its regular season finale against Arkansas. The sophomore will represent his own Doak Walker Award candidacy, with his performance serving as a closing argument to the board of directors that selects the award’s winner.
Hardy was named Tuesday as one of three finalists for the honor given to the nation’s top collegiate running back each season, alongside Jeremiyah Love from Notre Dame and former Tiger Kewan Lacy, who is now at Ole Miss.
The award will be announced during the Home Depot College Football Awards ceremony Dec. 12, meaning that postseason performance will not impact the outcome of the vote. Barring an SEC Championship Game appearance by the Rebels, Saturday will be the last opportunity for all three candidates to impact who receives one of the highest honors in college football.
Three Mizzou running backs — Hardy alongside Tyler Badie in 2021 and Cody Schrader in 2023 — have made it to the final round of the selection process in the last five years. Both of Hardy’s predecessors fell short, and no MU running back has won the award that dates back to 1990.
Hardy enters the regular season’s final week ahead of his two competitors in rushing yards with 1,403, a total that ranks second in the nation. Both Lacy and Love have the edge in rushing touchdowns, with 19 and 17 compared to Hardy’s 15, and Love’s 274 receiving yards this season put him ahead in total yardage.
All things considered, Hardy likely enters the weekend as an underdog in the award race to Love, who will face 4-7 Stanford.
But the Tigers’ running back also faces favorable competition in the Razorbacks’ 101st-ranked defense, per Bill Connelly’s SP+. And Arkansas is the only team this season to play all three Doak Walker finalists.
Facing the Razorbacks has not been any guarantee of success, though. Love and Lacy both had their second-lowest rushing totals of the season against Arkansas, recording 57 and 44 yards, respectively. The team’s defense has also allowed a 100-yard rusher just four times this season — two of them in the same game against Memphis.
A standout day in Fayetteville would be a notable data point in Hardy’s favor, given the relative struggles of the other top candidates running the ball against the Razorbacks.
And another performance approaching his games against Louisiana and Mississippi State could also etch his name atop the Mizzou single-season record books.
Hardy enters Saturday 225 yards shy of surpassing Cody Schrader’s single-season rushing record and 202 yards short of breaking the unofficial regular season record held by Tyler Badie (128 of Schrader’s 1,627 yards in 2023 came in the Cotton Bowl against Ohio State).
Surpassing Schrader’s record against Arkansas is unlikely for Hardy, who is averaging just under 128 yards per game: a mark that, when added onto his current total, leaves him 97 yards short. But very little is impossible for the Louisana-Monroe transfer, who already has two games of over 250 or more rushing yards in 2025.
The Tigers have also had a running back run wild in Fayetteville before — just two years ago, in fact, when Schrader rushed for 217 yards and a touchdown during a 48-14 rout.
No matter what happens Saturday, Hardy has already established his 2025 campaign as one of the greatest single-season performances in Mizzou history. Even if he ran for 0 yards and did not record a touchdown over the final two games of the season, his 2025 rushing total would rank fifth in Tigers history, and his 15 rushing touchdowns would be tied for seventh.
But a small chance remains for the Mississippi native to lift his Doak Walker candidacy and rewrite the MU record books in one fell swoop. And if Hardy has shown anything this season, it’s that he can do an awful lot with a tiny bit of an opening.
