{"id":193157,"date":"2025-09-30T21:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/193157\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T21:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:15:12","slug":"missouri-running-back-is-making-the-case-as-college-footballs-best-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/193157\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri running back is making the case as College Football\u2019s best player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Missouri running back Ahmad Hardy isn\u2019t just leading the country in rushing yards, he\u2019s making it look unfair. Week after week, Hardy\u2019s performances are pushing him from a local favorite into the national spotlight, and\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/tiger-extra\/2025\/09\/29\/5-incredible-stats-from-missouri-football-running-back-ahmad-hardy-after-five-games\/86424553007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">it\u2019s getting harder to argue against his place among college football\u2019s elite.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hardy\u2019s numbers are staggering. After piling up 130 yards and three touchdowns in Missouri\u2019s 42-6 win over UMass, he surged past UTSA\u2019s Robert Henry to become the nation\u2019s top rusher. He\u2019s now cleared 730 yards through five games, more than 100 yards ahead of his closest competitor.<\/p>\n<p>What separates Hardy is how he does it. Of his 730 yards, 544 have come after contact. That alone would rank him fifth nationally. He\u2019s also forced 48 missed tackles, averaging nearly 10 per game, numbers usually reserved for Heisman contenders.<\/p>\n<p>The pace is historic. Hardy\u2019s 146 yards per game put him within reach of Missouri\u2019s single-season rushing record of 1,627 yards, set by Cody Schrader in 2023. He\u2019s already opened the season with five straight 100-yard games, tying a feat last seen from Hall of Famer Joe Moore in 1969.<\/p>\n<p>If Hardy keeps this up, he won\u2019t just lead the country, he\u2019ll redefine what it means to be the best player in it.<\/p>\n<p>MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Missouri running back Ahmad Hardy isn\u2019t just leading the country in rushing yards, he\u2019s making it look unfair.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-193157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}