Ahmad Hardy stars as No. 25 Missouri beats Louisiana-Lafayette 52-10

Audio By Carbonatix

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Ahmad Hardy rushed for 250 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 25 Missouri pounded Louisiana-Lafayette 52-10 on Saturday.

The Tigers (3-0) finished with 427 yards rushing on 62 carries. Marquise Davis had 113 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula was 15-for-22 passing for 174 yards and two TDs. He also rushed for a 14-yard TD.

Hardy scored his second touchdown of the day on a 71-yard run that made it 35-3 with 5:41 remaining in the first half.

“Every time I touch the ball, I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to score,’” Hardy said. “So I was just trying to get in the end zone.”

Louisiana-Lafayette (1-2) finished with just 121 yards on offense, compared to 606 for Missouri. Quarterbacks Daniel Beale and Lunch Winfield combined to go 2-of-14 passing for 4 yards.

The Ragin’ Cajuns lost quarterback Walker Howard to an injury in their season-opening loss to Rice, and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said it affected the Tigers' game plan.

“If I’m going to be real, obviously, their starting quarterback got dinged up, and he’s a really, really good player," Drinkwitz said, "so coming on the road in the SEC environment versus that front, we just felt like we needed to be very aggressive and relentless in our coverage.

“I don’t think we called much zone cover today. I think the first completion they had was zone, and that was about it."

Hardy, who transferred to Missouri from Louisiana-Monroe in the offseason, posted a career high in rushing yards and broke the 200-yard barrier for the third time in his college career.

“He’s a tough runner,” Drinkwitz said. “He has a refusal to be tackled. He’s got really good vision. I think, other than maybe the counter play down there on the first drive, I think he hit every hole the way you want to. He just got a game ball, so pretty special performance by him."

Missouri pulled most of its starters in the third quarter after building a 45-10 lead.

Louisiana-Lafayette safety Maurion Eleam was carted off on a backboard before being transported to University Hospital with a lower-body injury.

The injury occurred with 10:53 left in the second quarter when Eleam absorbed a block from Missouri left tackle Cayden Green. Eleam waved his right hand and gave a thumbs-up as he was carted off the field.

“Anytime you see a kid on the field like that with an injury of that nature, it’s really hard,” coach Michael Desormeaux said. “A former walk-on, who earned a scholarship and earned a starting role, to see an injury like that, it’s just hard.”

The Ragin’ Cajuns did most of their damage on a handful of plays, including Zylan Perry’s 84-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

The Tigers need to eliminate mistakes heading into conference play.

Louisiana-Lafayette: The Ragin’ Cajuns visit Eastern Michigan next Saturday.

Missouri: The Tigers kick off Southeastern Conference play, hosting No. 11 South Carolina next Saturday night.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football