51ºÚÁÏ

COLUMBIA, Mo. — To talk about Missouri’s Saturday 52-10 win against Louisiana is to talk in triple-digit terms.

The No. 25 Tigers, who have a trifecta of wins so far this season, racked up 606 yards of total offense well more than triple the visitors’ tally of 121 total yards.

Mizzou ran for 427 yards, wearing down Louisiana in decidedly un-weary fashion.

Wearing anything to the game, which was moved up three hours to marginally mitigate the effects of 90-plus-degree weather, was to sweat through it. The temperature of the Faurot Field turf was too high for an analog thermometer that went up to 120 degrees to read before the game. By the end of the game, the turf measured at 176 degrees.

Yet the most noteworthy three-figure number of them all? MU tailback Ahmad Hardy’s 250 rushing yards.

It was both a career high for Hardy, the 5-foot-10, 212-pound running back in his second season of college football, and the seventh-most rushing yards in a single game in Missouri history. Hardy’s tally came in only about 2 ½ quarter of work, too — the Tigers pulled their offensive starters with about eight minutes to go in the third quarter.

Hardy also scored three touchdowns to make himself the clear headliner.

“I think he hit every hole the way you want to,� Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said.

Hardy’s first score was a 7-yarder via a pitch on the opening drive of the game. His second was a 71-yard breakaway, and his third was another one scored from 7 yards away.

To most, Saturday’s nonconference meeting looked ripe for a bloodbath. Louisiana may have won 10 games and played for the Sun Belt championship last season, but it was down its starting quarterback and struggling to throw the ball this season. (The Ragin’ Cajuns managed a meager 4 yards through the air. Not a typo: It really was single-digit passing.) MU, meanwhile, is readying for Southeastern Conference play with No. 11 South Carolina headed its way next week.

To Hardy, however, Saturday was ripe for revenge. He’d lost to Louisiana last year when he was leading the Sun Belt in rushing with Louisiana-Monroe, a 37-23 defeat for the Warhawks to close the 2024 regular season.

“Last season, they beat us by 14 points,� Hardy said. “I was telling the guys, this was a little personal, so I wanted to beat them. I wasn’t really focused on the yards.�

Still, the yards came, prolific and efficient as could be. Eight of Hardy’s 22 carries went for 10-plus yards. And he wasn’t the only effective piece of the MU backfield.

True freshman Marquise Davis, handling relief duty after the starters were pulled, used 20 rushes to pick up 113 yards and a touchdown.

Jamal Roberts ran the ball eight times for 46 yards and turned a check-down pass from quarterback Beau Pribula into a 39-yard receiving score.

“We were able to get our outside zone going,� Drinkwitz said, “which honestly, I wasn’t sure (about) just because they run that scheme too.�

Pribula’s performance was solid but lacked the luster of his first two games in a Mizzou uniform. He completed 15 of 22 passes with 174 yards and two passing touchdowns. On a draw play, he also scored a 14-yard touchdown.

He also threw his first interception with the Tigers.

Mildly deep in his own territory, Pribula tried to sling a low pass toward the left sideline. It was too low to clear Louisiana’s Cameron Whitfield, though, who tipped the ball to himself and picked it off.

“About time,� Drinkwitz said he told Pribula. “Let’s get it out of the way so people quit asking us about it. Move on. I mean, it was Cover 2. He probably should have moved on to (a different target), but he didn’t. The thing about Beau is when he makes a mistake, he owns it and moves on. That’s a part of growing.�

The Ragin’ Cajuns failed to punish him for the error, mostly because they couldn’t get anything going on offense. Despite taking over at the MU 22-yard line after the interception, they settled for a field goal.

Louisiana’s other seven points came on an 84-yard rushing touchdown for tailback Zylan Perry — a run that busted right through the middle of the Tigers’ defense.

Take that single play out of the equation and Louisiana would’ve had just 37 yards of offense. That counts as a dominant day from the Missouri defense.

“I wish you could take everything but one play, but we did give up a big play and that’s got to get taken off the tape,� Drinkwitz said.

That seems to be the predominant takeaway from Mizzou’s dominant day. There was a lot of very good, particularly on the ground. If this matchup against the Ragin’ Cajuns, sandwiched between season-defining showdowns with Kansas and South Carolina, was ever a trap game, that trap was deftly side-stepped.

The most glaring of flaws — and more will be uncovered in film sessions over the next couple of days, naturally — could be boiled down to two plays. Not too shabby.

“I really challenged our guys to demonstrate an elite edge, to demand it from themselves and others, and to be disciplined to dominate their opponent for four quarters,� Drinkwitz said. “Outside of two plays — the interception by Beau and then that long run — I felt like we really dominated that game.�