As we here at Hail Florida Hail have mentioned over the last couple of weeks, one of the hidden games on the Gators' schedule this year is the October 3 trip to Missouri. The Tigers are an opponent who seldom excites Gator fans, and given some of the other games circled, it’s one that has kind of been forgotten about in the build-up to the 2026 season.
But Missouri is also set up to be one of the biggest coin flip games of the year, and contributing to the coin flip nature of the game is the health and recovery of star running back Ahmad Hardy, who was shot in the leg this offseason.
Speaking at the SEC Media Days in Tampa, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz gave a promising update on Hardy for the Tigers while still painting a picture of uncertainty.
Florida fans still won’t know what to expect from Ahmad Hardy
Drinkwitz wasted no time in his opening comments to speak on Hardy’s status, who was shot in the leg in May at a concert. Drinkwitz said that while Hardy is medically healed, he isn’t sure what Hardy’s recovery to being a football player is going to look like:
“Ahmad has been medically cleared from the bullet that struck him. He is on the road to recovery. The bullet did strike a bone in his body. That has been fully healed and cleared. Today was his first day back towards a full recovery.
We anticipate that he will make a recovery. What that recovery will look like after having a bullet strike you is still to be determined. We do not know exactly what the return-to-play progression is because there's not a lot of literature on this. We are utilizing our medical team, along with our athletic performance team and nutrition, to approach this at a very good pace.
We do anticipate that this return-to-play protocol could take anywhere between five to eight weeks. At the end of the eight weeks, we still don't know what his recovery will be from a is he the same Ahmad Hardy that was last year.
My anticipation, what I've seen, the way he's attacked his rehab, he's going to be a better Ahmad Hardy than he was before. I'm very proud of the way he's approached his recovery. I'm not sure that his riding horses was part of the recovery protocol that his surgeon had in place. But hell, John Wayne rode after he had been shot. He turned out all right. Ahmad Hardy is trying the same approach.”
Florida faces Missouri on October 3
The October 3 game has flown under the radar even if there are storylines galore for the game that don’t even involve Hardy.
For starters, there is the subplot that Drinkwitz was floated as a candidate to replace Billy Napier, but Gator fans never bought into the idea. Then there is the reunion with QB Austin Simmons, who had committed to Florida as a 2025 QB, then reclassified suddenly as a 2023 QB while flipping to Ole Miss.
But from a national perspective, and the way Drinkwitz is framing Hardy’s timeline, there is a possibility that the game against Florida is Hardy’s return. Drinkwitz said his recovery could take up to eight weeks, and the Florida vs Missouri game is ten weeks away.
Last year, Hardy ran for 1,649 yards and 16 TDs.
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