Ahmad Hardy SEC Media Day Health Update, Mizzou's RB Room

Obviously suffered a gunshot wound back earlier this summer on May 10th, the morning after a concert in Laurel, Mississippi, kind of by his hometown. Underwent a surgery for that. The gunshot was in his upper leg and he's been recovering ever since. Some of the big things for the timeline wise, Drinkwits said he is medically cleared and that his return to play protocol will be about five to eight weeks. And Drinkwits also said, he used the words that I like to bring up, he said when Ahmaud scores his touchdown this year. So we will be seeing Ahmaud Hardy this year, at least according to Eli Drinkwits. I know at points that was in speculation because we were completely in the dark on the Ahmaud Hardy situation for the longest time, but now we know that for a fact he will be playing this year. We just don't know exactly when, but it seems like it's going to be five to eight weeks for that timeline. Five weeks from now is a week before the season opener against Arkansas Pine Bluff. Eight weeks from now, I believe is right before SEC play begins. I wrote it down. Eight weeks from now is right before SEC play. But Zach, thoughts on the Ahmaud Hardy injury update? Well, obviously this is huge for the Tigers. It's what everybody has been waiting for. And I like that it was about three minutes into Drink talking, he was like, okay, and now for what everyone's waiting for, I'm going to tell you guys what's up with Ahmaud Hardy. And it was great news. One thing that I thought was really interesting was what Jamal Roberts said about it. Because obviously he was like, yeah, he's good to go because it was after Drink had announced it, but he was talking about how they feed off each other. And his quote was me and Ahmaud coach each other up all the time. And he was like saying, even right now, like even when he wasn't able to play, he was still coaching me up during summer workouts. So I think we're going to see a really exciting season between both of them. Once again, maybe we'll even see a little bit more from Roberts. I still expect an explosive season from Ahmaud Hardy. It sounds like he's very healthy. Who knows he could have another 1600 yard season, but Roberts last year with 750, I can even see that go up as well, but it's going to be really, it's going to be really interesting to see them feed off each other once again. And it seems like their, their relationship is just getting stronger through this. I mean, yeah, I think it's important for that running back room. It can get awkward. Sometimes the positions like running back where some guys don't like being in a committee, some guys like having a way heavier workload. Some guys like being the workhorse. It seems like both of these guys obviously enjoy the system they're in. They're constantly coaching each other up. Like Roberts said, Roberts Hardy may have the advantage as a pure rusher and kind of just the physical freak he is, but Roberts is really great in past protection and also has some good pre-snap reading ability. So that's where he can kind of help Ahmaud out. And like you said, they coach each other up. So I think that's good for the running back room. And I do think I agree with you in the sense that we're probably going to see a better numbers out of Roberts this year, just because of the opportunity. Even if Ahmaud is back in week one, I would imagine since it's against Troy, Kansas, Pine Bluff in those first three weeks, I would imagine you can just lean a little bit more on Jamal Roberts and slowly ramp Ahmaud back up into it, even against Mississippi state. I mean, Ahmaud rushed for 300 yards against them last year. So it's not exactly like if Ahmaud can go for 300, why can't Jamal go for 200? I think you can just lean on Jamal through those first four weeks this season, to be totally honest, and wait for Ahmaud to get 100 percent. Totally back and healthy, back acclimated to playing football. Jamal is good enough to where I think the coaching staff, and I know I certainly do, feel faithful enough for him to take the reins of the backfield for however long he needs. And Missouri's offense will still be pretty good, because we've seen this Looper scheme, the Looper-Drinkwits scheme, can really just make anyone super productive. I guess, Zach, thoughts on, I know Drinkwits gave Looper a shout out as Mr. Consistent at the SEC Media Days. How do you think the run game at Mizzou is so special, kind of no matter who's in it? Well, I actually was going to talk about this earlier when you brought up the five-star running back that Mizzou has a chance to get, and I think that the chance is somewhat strong, because if you look since 2021, there's been three seasons where Missouri has had a guy that rushes for 1,600 yards, and I feel like now it's kind of like, well, yeah, Mizzou does that, but that's not normal. And I think you have Tyler Bidet who did it, Cody Schrader, and then Ahmaud Hardy. And Cody Schrader, I believe, is in 23, Bidet in 21, and then Hardy last season in 25. So this is just one season in between each of them. Three times in five years this has happened. And that, like I said, is not normal. And it's the system that Mizzou has worked with, and it's started to really ramp up and work really well. This season could be another one like that, or we could just see an insane total of rushing yards between Roberts and Hardy. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if we see something close to 3,000 between both of them, which is a huge number, but there's a chance. I mean, the system works really well, and I expect this offense to be a lot more explosive, and I do expect it to be more dynamic, because we are going to talk about Austin Simmons a little bit later, but that's just going to give the Tigers more opportunities to be on the field for longer, which could lead to more rushing yards. So this system is nothing to be coughed at. It is quite extraordinary. Well, it's interesting you bring up the Simmons stuff, because obviously, there's kind of give and take with it. Last season, Mizzou ran so much for a couple reasons. One, because their running back and their rushing scheme and their offensive line was really good, and it let them run all the time. The other reason is that the pass game was quite literally non-existent for the second half of the season. Against Arkansas, I think they threw four passes in the first half. It was a ridiculously low number. They had to run a lot of times. They just didn't have a choice. So now you bring in Simmons, who I think most of us are in agreement will probably be better than Bo Pervila was and true freshman Matt Zollers was. So now you bring in Simmons, and it's going to presumably unlock the pass game. It'll be interesting to see how that affects the amount that Missouri runs, because like you said, yeah, theoretically, it's going to allow Missouri to be on the field longer. If the pass game is good enough, Missouri is probably also going to pass a little bit more. Do I think the run game is still the focal point? Obviously, you don't have Ahmad Hardy, Jamal Roberts, and Curtis Looper and not make the run game the focal point of your offense. I think there's a chance that if Simmons is really good and the pass game is good, maybe the rushing yards go down a little bit. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with that because that just means the offense is probably going to be better.