To say that the Mizzou Tigers had a long game in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl would be an oversimplification at best. In a phrase, the Tigers suffered “death by a thousand papercuts” against the Virginia Cavaliers in a 13-7 loss Saturday night.
“It’s on me,” said Mizzou head coach Eliah Drinkwitz. “I didn’t do a good enough job calling plays tonight or getting us into a rhythm or giving you things we could do and execute quick enough.”
Freshman quarterback Matt Zollers earned the start in relief of the transferring Beau Pribula, going for 101 yards and an interception on 12-of-22 passing.
Ahmad Hardy proved to be the bright spot in a dreary day for the war-weary Tigers, breaking the single-season rushing yards record set by Cody Schrader in 2023. Hardy’s 89 yards on 15 carries came with a noticeable gap in frequency — he did not register a carry for over 25 minutes of game time, including the entire third quarter and most of the fourth. In that span, however, the Tigers simply couldn’t find the field on offense, in no small part due to a 10 minute, seven second drive from the Virginia Cavalier offense.
Special teams was a thorn in the side for both teams, with only half of the attempted field goals by both teams completed. Mizzou kicker Oliver Robbins missed from 42 yards, and Virginia kicker Will Bettridge missed a 44-yard kick wide right. Virginia also muffed one punt that was recovered by Mizzou.
On the other side, the Virginia Cavaliers reached 11 wins for the first time in program history off the back of Chandler Morris’s bowl MVP performance, racking up 198 yards on 25-of-38 passing, including a perfect 10-of-10 on third down.
“I think just watching it on film all week, the coaching staff had a really good plan for us on third down,” Morris said. “I was very confident in it.”
Morris also performed the rarest of feats in a college football game, punting on a fourth down out of shotgun for 41 yards.
“That’s something that we practice every week, never knowing when you’re going to have to execute it,” said Virginia head coach Tony Elliott. “So really for 15 weeks we’ve been practicing. We have a lot of competition on Thursdays in practice with that particular play.”
With the offseason now firmly in the sights of the Tigers coaching staff, the focus now turns to player retention and transfer portal movement. Coach Drinkwitz confirmed postgame that Hardy, Zollers, defensive tackle Jalen Marshall and linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez had re-signed with the team for the 2026 season.
“We have a really strong foundation of guys that are signed,” Drinkwitz said. “People are making fun of people for putting out posters or tweets about resigning. I think you kind of have to [put out posters] now to make sure everybody knows who is coming back, right?”
For now, the Mizzou Tigers football team will reflect on an 8-5 season, one that is bittersweet in its ending and uncertain in its future.
“I think, and I know, the fans are disappointed,” Drinkwitz said. “I’m disappointed. I know that locker room’s disappointed.”
“That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing when Missouri is disappointed after a season like this. That’s where we want to be. That’s what we got to be.”