Missouri’s offense has kept moving without Ahmad Hardy, but the Tigers still don’t have their star back on the practice field.
Eli Drinkwitz said Tuesday that Hardy has not yet returned to practice as No. 14 Missouri gets ready to host Texas A&M on Saturday at Faurot Field in Columbia. The coach said the running back is still not far enough along to begin a two-week ramp-up.
“I hate to do this back-and-forth every week,” Drinkwitz said Tuesday during his weekly press conference with local reporters. “I promise you guys, as soon as I get an update worth sharing, I will, but he's not able to participate in a two-week ramp-up yet.”
Hardy is still working back from a gunshot wound he suffered in May. Drinkwitz said at SEC Media Days in Tampa on July 20 that Hardy had been cleared from the bullet wound and could start the football portion of his comeback. At that point, Drinkwitz said the “return-to-play protocol could take anywhere between five to eight weeks.”
Now, 78 days after that comment on the main stage in Tampa, Hardy still hasn’t fully returned to practice.
“He's not able to go out there and protect himself in a manner that he would have to to compete in the SEC,” Drinkwitz said. “He's working really hard.
He's doing everything he can. We're just waiting for his body to respond.”
Hardy’s absence has left a big hole, but Missouri has found production elsewhere. Jamal Roberts has taken over as the lead back and has piled up 606 yards and six touchdowns on 113 carries through five games.
That total ranks second in the SEC and sixth nationally. Against Florida last weekend, Roberts turned in the best game of his season, going for a career-high 211 yards and three touchdowns.
“He's really put in a lot of work since Ahmad's injury to carry the load he needs to carry,” Drinkwitz said of Roberts. “He's been really more impressive than maybe I gave him credit for going into the season with his ability to break long runs. That's been a good thing.”
Missouri has had other injuries in the backfield, too. Malae Fonoti, a transfer from FCS Montana, tore his ACL in the season-opening win over FCS Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Xai'Shaun Edwards, who came over from Houston Christian, has settled in as the No. 2 back behind Roberts, with 124 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries.
Hardy’s own standard is a tough one to chase. Last season, he rushed for 1,649 yards, which set a single-season program record, and scored 16 touchdowns. He was a First-Team All-SEC pick, a consensus All-American and a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, handed out each year to the nation’s top college running back.
Drinkwitz said Hardy is still trying to work his way back to that level and to his old running form. He had said at SEC Media Days that Hardy would “be a better Ahmad Hardy than he was before.” That comeback remains a work in progress.
“He's trying to get the running form back,” Drinkwitz said. “When you have an injury that he's had, or sustained, and you have the type of repair that he had to have, it takes time for your body to process a new normal for how you'll have to run or be athletic again.
“If he was me, he'd be back out there. But when you're trying to be the best running back in the country, and that's what you were previously, it's a lot of time and work to get back there. His body is just not ready yet.”
Missouri enters Saturday at 4-1 overall and 1-1 in SEC play after its 45-17 win over Florida. Texas A&M comes in at 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the league. The Aggies have won the last three meetings between the teams by a combined 114-41.
The matchup also marks the official midway point of the 2026 season, with six games gone and six still left to play. Drinkwitz said the Tigers will keep waiting on Hardy, but they can’t stop moving.
“He's doing everything he can,” Drinkwitz said. “Our medical staff is doing everything they can.
We all wish it was right now, but it's not. Little by little, a little becomes a lot.
We're just hoping little by little - I know everybody is frustrated. I know he's frustrated.
I'm trying not to be frustrated.
“When he's ready, he's ready. Our job as a team is to do the very best we can until he can go.
If that's in a couple of weeks, great. If it's not, it's not.
There's nobody that can control it.”
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