Texas Gets Major Missouri Injury Update Ahead of November Showdown

Texas has not played Missouri since the 2017 Texas Bowl and the Longhorns have not visited Columbia for a conference game since 2011, back when both programs were still in the Big 12. That reunion arrives Nov. 7 and the backfield Texas prepares for could look very different from the one Missouri has used all season.

The Tigers have been fine without their best back. Jamal Roberts has carried the load with 867 yards and eight touchdowns through seven games, including a 211-yard, three-touchdown afternoon against Florida that announced him as a legitimate SEC starter. Missouri sits at 5-2 and has run the ball well all year.

Now the player ahead of him on the depth chart is close to returning.

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Eli Drinkwitz announced Sunday that Ahmad Hardy will practice this week for the first time since May, when he was shot in the upper leg while leaving a concert in Mississippi and required emergency surgery.

“After consulting with our medical team, Ahmad Hardy will return to practice this week,” Drinkwitz posted. “Our medical staff will determine his return to game action.”

The timeline is what should concern Texas. Drinkwitz has repeatedly said Hardy must complete a two-week ramp-up of full-speed practices before the team considers putting him in a game. However, it remains unclear whether that timeline will apply to his return this week.

Count forward from this week and the math points toward Nov. 7. Missouri travels to Arkansas on Halloween night first, a game Hardy is unlikely to play. Drinkwitz has not named a return date, but the Longhorns are the next opponent after that two-week window.

What Texas could face is the best running back in the conference last season. In his first year at Missouri after transferring from Louisiana-Monroe, Hardy carried the ball 256 times for 1,649 yards and 16 touchdowns, leading the SEC in rushing and earning consensus first-team All-American honors. 

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Those honors carried into this season even with his status unknown. Hardy was named a first-team preseason All-American and a first-team preseason All-SEC selection months after the shooting, when nobody knew whether he would play at all in 2026.

Pairing him with Roberts would give Missouri two legitimate SEC starters in the backfield behind an offensive line anchored by preseason All-American left tackle Cayden Green. That would present a different challenge for the Texas defensive front than the one the Tigers have posed so far.

There is reason for the Longhorns to temper their concern. A player returning from that kind of injury after eight months away is unlikely to look like himself immediately and Drinkwitz has acknowledged how much time the body needs to adjust after a repair like Hardy's. A rusty version of Hardy with a limited workload presents a very different matchup than the one Missouri envisioned in the offseason.