Missouri came into 2026 with every reason to expect the ground game to keep rolling. Eli Drinkwitz was back.
Ahmad Hardy was back in the picture, at least in theory. Jamal Roberts returned after breaking out.
Curtis Luper was still coaching the backs. After finishing 2025 ranked second in Power Four rushing yards per game and leaning on one of the nation’s best backfield tandems, the Tigers looked set to keep the pressure on defenses.
Instead, two games in, the run game has become the offense’s biggest problem.
The offense has still looked elite overall, but the production on the ground has not matched it. Missouri is missing Hardy, who suffered a gunshot wound May 10 in Mississippi after attending a concert.
He had surgery the next day and has been recovering since. Drinkwitz said Tuesday that Hardy, who ran for 1,649 yards and 16 touchdowns while averaging 6.4 yards per carry last season, is “still rehabbing,” and Drinkwitz has “no” update.
Hardy has not practiced this season.
The injuries have kept piling up in the backfield. Montana State transfer Malae Fonoti, who was listed with Xai’Shaun Edwards as Missouri’s second-string back to open the year, suffered a non-contact ACL injury and will miss the rest of the season.
That has left the Tigers with a thin room: Roberts in his first year as a starter, Edwards in his first FBS season, former walk-on Anthony Favrow, who had only one carry before the season, and true freshmen Max Warner and Preston Hatfield. Every healthy tailback is carrying more than he has before.
Roberts took on the biggest workload against Kansas on Friday, logging a career-high 28 carries and turning them into 125 yards and a touchdown. He also played 27 additional snaps in pass protection or as a route runner. That kind of load adds up.
“Came in a lot more sore than than usual the next day,” Roberts said of his recovery. “Just being in and out the trainers' room, just spending a lot of hours in there, just to get my body back so I can be ready for the next week.”
Through two games, Missouri has managed the burden well enough. The concern is what happens when the schedule tightens and Southeastern Conference play begins Sept.
- The backs are being asked to do more, and the line has not consistently given them much help.
The issue starts with the outside zone, a staple of Drinkwitz’s offense since he arrived in Columbia. Right now, it isn’t clicking.
“I think our outside zone scheme right now, we're just not all five blocking on the same page, and then our cuts aren't always the same,” Drinkwitz said. “We got to make sure that our tailbacks in phase, with the way it's being blocked...
Our guards were late on making their decisions. They got to play faster and they got to play on the line of scrimmage.
You know, outside zone - too many people think it's a wide zone play, we're trying to get to the sideline. We're trying to capture the line of scrimmage and get on their outside edge and create vertical seams.
And we just haven't been able to do that consistently yet.”
Missouri has had to sort through new pieces up front as well. Tristan Wilson is a new starter at left guard, Luke Work is new at right tackle, Dominick Giudice moved from starting left guard in 2025 to starting center in 2026, and All-SEC left tackle Cayden Green missed the first game of the season. The line hasn’t had much time to settle, but it needs to quickly.
There have been pockets of success. Missouri’s most productive runs have come between the guards, especially through the middle-right gap, where Roberts ripped off a 64-yard touchdown against Kansas. Even without that burst, runs through that lane lead the team in first downs with five and runs of 10 or more yards with four.
The next-best areas have been between Wilson and Green, between Work and the right tight end, where Jordon Harris often lines up, and outside that right tight end. But across the board, the numbers are down sharply from last season.
Drinkwitz said one area has stood out more than the others, but he also knows the Tigers need more than that to get the run game back where it belongs.
“I think our duo scheme was actually really good for us in the game, and we thought Coach (Chip) Lindsey did a really good job of mixing that up,” Drinkwitz said. “But we got to add some variety to our scheme and we just got to continue to find our rhythm and reps.”
Hardy’s return would obviously help, but he can’t solve everything on his own. Even after leading the FBS in missed tackles forced and yards after contact a year ago, he would still be stepping into an offense that needs cleaner blocking and more consistency. For now, Missouri has to improve from within, and maybe find a little more variety along the way.
The Tigers host Troy at 6 p.m. Saturday in their final nonconference game of the season, and they need a cleaner night on the ground against a Trojans defense that has been merely middling against the run.
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Troy brings enough on defense to make those issues feel urgent rather than cosmetic. Ty Clemons and Kavion Henderson can disrupt Missouris ground game, and the Trojans also have enough in the defensive backfield to make life uncomfortable for the Tigers passing attack. Missouris own secondary will be tested in return, which makes this a useful measuring-stick game in more ways than one before the schedule turns tougher. [Read more 🡒]