Mizzou braved the mid-September heat against Louisiana and walked away with a breezy 52-10 win to move to 3-0 on the season.
Here are your five takeaways from the dominant win:
1. Hardy-har-har
Ahmad Hardy rushed for 100 yards a touchdown in each of his first two games as a Tiger, and yet he hasn’t been the biggest story – thanks, of course, to the brilliance of Beau Pribula. Last week he was even overshadowed by Jamal Roberts, who capped the win over kansas with the nail-in-the-coffin 63-yard-dash. Against the Ragin’
Cajuns, however, Hardy made sure no one upstaged him.
By the end of the first half, Hardy had racked up 187 yards rushing, two scores and more than a handful of explosive plays… all on just 16 carries. He continued that good work into the second half, ending up with 250 yards and 3 touchdowns on 22 rushes. Roberts provided ample support and Pribula poached a score on the ground as well, but when Hardy lined up in the backfield, Louisiana rarely had an answer.
In just three weeks in black-and-gold, Hardy has had no trouble translating his hard-running style to the Power Four. He’ll get a chance to showcase himself on a national stage next week when South Carolina’s stout run defense comes to town.
2. Batoon Brigade steps up
We’ve seen Corey Batoon’s defense be solid, if not quite spectacular, over the first two weeks, and it felt like they needed a dominant effort to get them amped up ahead of South Carolina. And while there are still some details to clean up, the production certainly took a step forward.
The line was a nightmare for Louisiana’s running game, allowing just 33 yards (outside of Zylan Perry’s 84-yard touchdown) for a 1.57 per carry average. Damon Wilson II and Zion Young both got home on sacks and provided 3 of the defense’s total 8 tackles for loss. The secondary completely shut down any thought of a passing game — 4 yards through the air! 4! — and was nearly perfect outside of a pass interference call on Stephen Hall (who responded with a pass breakup in the same drive.)
The defense will face a different beast next weekend, with the prospective No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft lining up for the other team. They’ll be able to do so off the back of their best game of the season so far.
3. Hot, but healthy
The program announced late in the week that the start time of the game would be moved from 3 pm to noon to get the teams and fans out of the late afternoon heat. And while the teams were able to avoid the most extreme heat of the day, they still had to deal with field temperatures of 100-plus degrees. It was imperative that Mizzou got out of this game healthy and ready to start the meat of their schedule with a full squad.
Mission accomplished. After going up by 35 at the beginning of the third quarter, Drinkwitz quickly shuffled the starters to the bench and gave the rest of the afternoon to his youngsters for some valuable game reps.
Never say never when it comes to the injury report, as there could be some things we don’t see. But outside of any surprises, Mizzou is walking out of Week Three with a happy, healthy and, hopefully, hydrated squad.
4. A sloppy Second (Quarter)
To be fair, it’s hard to get off to a better start than going up 28-0 and only giving up one first down on a defensive pass interference. But the Mizzou coaching staff will point to the 9:00 minute mark of the second quarter as the point where the Tigers’ sharpness started to fade.
A blown blocking scheme by Connor Tollison and a quick sack by Jaden Dugger was quickly followed by a questionable ball from Beau Pribula, which was tipped and intercepted by a floating defensive end. And while the Tiger defense held that time around, it also marked the Cajuns first time on the board as they nabbed a quick field goal. Later in the quarter, the defense was gashed by Perry’s 84-yard run. Meanwhile, the Tiger offense stalled, with Beau Pribula completing just five of his final 11 pass attempts of the half, including a drive into the red zone that stalled for a field goal.
You can point to a number of factors, but the simple matter is that Mizzou lost its concentration. Eli Drinkwitz made his disappointment known on the broadcast, telling the crew that the Tigers wanted to dominate all four quarters but failed to do so in the second quarter. The lessons they learn from that period will be sticky points for the team as they get ready to host South Carolina next weekend.
5. As Bachman-Turner Overdrive once said…
Sometimes you don’t need to overanalyze it! This was a game Mizzou needed to dominate from start to finish, and, with one small periodic exception, they did. They’ll walk into their first real test of the season with a perfect record and plenty of momentum.
