Ahmad Hardy rushed for 300 yards and scored three touchdowns as the Missouri Tigers defeated Mississippi State 49-27 on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. The win ended a two-game losing streak for Missouri, bringing their season record to 7-3 overall and 3-3 in Southeastern Conference play. Mississippi State dropped to 5-6 and 1-6 in conference games.
"All week we talked about brothers are born for adversity," Tigers coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. "It had been a rough couple of weeks for our team, and for our brotherhood to stand strong and stand resilient in the face of adversity I was really round of the senior class, really proud of those 20 men."
Hardy carried the ball 25 times, becoming only the second player in school history to rush for at least 300 yards in a game. His performance is second only to Devin West’s school record of 319 yards set against Kansas in 1998. Hardy now has 1,346 rushing yards this season, which ranks fifth most by a Mizzou player in a single season.
The Tigers' defense contributed significantly with two interception returns for touchdowns by Toriano Pride Jr. and Marvin Burks Jr., marking just the second time Missouri has achieved two "pick-sixes" in one game; the previous occurrence was in a win over Texas Tech in 2006.
Missouri started strong with Chris McClellan sacking Mississippi State quarterback Blake Shapen on the Bulldogs’ opening drive. Freshman quarterback Matt Zollers threw an early touchdown pass to Donovan Olugbode, giving Missouri an initial lead that they maintained throughout the game.
Mississippi State managed to close the gap several times but could not overcome Missouri’s offense or defensive scores. The Tigers recorded five sacks and thirteen tackles for loss during the contest.
Burks led Missouri with twelve tackles along with his interception return touchdown, while linebacker Khalil Jacobs added ten tackles. Darris Smith contributed three tackles for loss including two sacks.
Missouri will travel next week to face Oklahoma on November 22 at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 11:00 a.m., broadcast on ABC.
For more information about Mizzou Athletics visit MUTigers.com or follow their social media accounts on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
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