In a world that contains approximately 60 million horses, thoroughbreds are the king of the stable.
Champion racehorses require a rare combination of speed, strength and stamina to succeed on the grass and the turf.
Ahmad Hardy displayed that same combination running on the turf Saturday at Faurot Field, putting together a dominant performance reminiscent of Secretariat’s 1973 Triple Crown-clinching 31 length victory at the Belmont Stakes.
The Louisiana-Monroe transfer bolted his way into the Mizzou
record books, recording the seventh-most rushing yards in Tigers single-game history.
He ran for 250 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, surpassing Brad Smith’s 246 yards against Nebraska in 2005, for an average of 11.36 yards per carry. That average gave him another prominent spot in the record books: Hardy’s yards per rush Saturday rank fifth in Mizzou single-game history among players with 15 or more rushes.
His performance earned him the team’s game ball.
“He’s a tough runner, he has a refusal to get tackled; he’s got really good vision,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game, “Other than maybe the counter play down there on the first drive, I think he hit every hole the way you want to.”
The similarities might just make sense.
Hardy is an avid horseman and has talked to the media multiple times about his trusted steed, CoCo. He’s posted multiple videos of himself riding on social media and has even invited some Tiger teammates to ride along with him.
Like an aggressive jockey, offensive coordinator Kirby Moore urged the running game into the fray early against Louisiana.
Hardy helped the Tigers offense storm out of the starting gate like Seattle Slew, recording five rushes for 39 yards on the team’s 10 play, 73-yard opening drive and scoring the first touchdown of the contest.
Moore continued to lean on the running game in the first quarter, keeping the ball on the ground on 16 of 22 plays over the team’s first three offensive drives – all of them ending in touchdowns.
Hardy recorded 62 yards on those drives as the offense pushed its way to a 21-0 advantage less than a minute into the second quarter.
His longest run of the day came later in the quarter with Mizzou ahead 28-3. The sophomore bounced out to the right side and made the most of his room to run, charging 71 yards to the end zone for a touchdown.
“Every time I touch the ball, I’m thinking I’m going to score,” Hardy said about the play. “So I was just trying to get in the end zone.”
The touchdown put him over 100 yards for the game, and he finished the half with 16 carries for 187 yards. His most impressive rush, though, came on the Tigers’ 10 play, 75-yard drive to begin the second half.
Mizzou pummeled its way down the field on the drive, running the ball on all but one play. Hardy took the rock on six of those nine rushes, including a 25-yard gain where he physically dragged a Ragin’ Cajuns defender hanging on for dear life more than 10 yards downfield.
“He dragged a grown man on his back, I haven’t seen that in person before,” linebacker Khalil Jacobs said, “So that was a crazy thing to see, I ain’t gonna lie.”
Hardy put the exclamation point on the drive with a seven-yard rushing touchdown – and just like that, his day was done with nearly 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The transfer’s career day was made even more impressive by the oppressive heat on the field. The temperature in Columbia approached 90 degrees at kickoff and rose into the mid-nineties by the end of the game.
“I think they just showed us the actual turf surface was 176 degrees there at the end,” Drinkwitz said.
The heat didn’t seem to bother the Mississippi native, who punished Louisiana defenders with an intensity fueled by a desire to revenge the visitors’ defeat of Louisiana-Monroe last season – a game where he ran for 172 yards.
“Last season, they beat [Louisiana-Monroe] by 14 points. And I was telling the guys, this was a little personal,” Hardy said, “So I wanted to beat them, I wasn’t really focused on the yards.”
His teammates obliged him with a 52-10 domination. The Tigers finished the day with 606 total yards, including 427 on the ground, and held the Ragin’ Cajuns offense to only four passing yards.
Hardy’s star turn in the game put to rest any doubts about his ability to translate his production to a higher level. He now has 57 carries and 462 rushing yards over his first three contests in the black and gold, averaging 8.11 yard per rush.
The scary part for SEC defenses? Hardy feels like he’s still getting up to speed.
“It’s still fast,” he said, “I mean, it’s just big boy ball, so I just gotta adjust.”
If Hardy continues to perform at a level like the one he found against Louisiana, he and his teammates might ride to a third straight double-digit win season – and possibly even find themselves in the running for some bigger stakes.
