Mizzou’s late heroics fall short; Tigers lose to Virginia in Gator Bowl
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou football team fell short of a heroic game-winning drive in the final seconds on Saturday's TaxSlayer Gator Bowl to lose to No. 19 Virginia, 13-7.
With the loss, head coach Eli Drinkwitz's team falls to 8-5 on the year for their first bowl loss since 2022.
You can watch the full postgame press conference with Coach Eli and players in the video player below.
Mizzou snatched a quick lead in the opening minutes, as Drinkwitz's one-two punch in the backfield made their presence known. On the opening drive, Consensus All-American running back Ahmad Hardy ripped off a 43-yard run, which ended up setting a five-yard score from his counterpart Jamal Roberts.
Hardy entered Saturday's game just 68 yards shy of breaking the Tigers' single-season rushing record, that was previously held by running back Cody Schrader. He shaved that deficit down to just 25 yards on that opening drive, but after that the Virginia front tightened up. Hardy only tallied 22 yards the rest of the half, going into the locker room just four yards short of the single-season record.
In fact, it was tough for either offense to get anything going the rest of the first half, with the only other score coming courtesy of a 42-yard field goal off the leg of the Cavaliers' kicker.
Going into halftime with a 7-3 lead, Coach Drinkwitz mentioned on the TV broadcast that in order to find success the run game has to get going in the final two quarters of action.
Out of the locker room, the Cavaliers took control.
Head coach Tony Elliot's squad gutted out a 19-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to take their first lead of the game (10-7) and also shave more than 10 minutes off the clock in the third quarter.
That started off a disastrous third quarter for Coach Eli's team, as the they only ran six offensive plays for 13 yards. Meanwhile, Virginia followed up its 19-play drive with a 14-yard drive for a field goal to end that quarter with a 13-7 lead over the Tigers.
Coach Elliot's squad didn't have to do much else to lock down the victory, as it took Mizzou until the 4:20 mark in the fourth quarter to even register a first down in the second half.
Despite all that turmoil, Mizzou still had a chance with less than a minute to play. Zollers led his team on a potential game-winning drive all the way to Virginia's 21 yard line, down by six. However, after his head hit the turf third and 10, official elected to take him out of the game for concussion protocol. As a result, backup Brett Brown came into the game and launched a prayer into the end zone to try to win the game, but it fell incomplete out of the hands of wide receiver Daniel Blood.
Third down conversions were a massive difference-maker in this game for the Cavaliers, as they converted on 13 out of 23 attempts. On the flip side, Mizzou only converted on two out of 10.
In his third start of the season, Zollers only threw 22 passes, as completed 54 percent of them for 101 yards and one interception.
Hardy ended up with 89 yards on 15 carries, which gives him the program's single-season rushing record.
Up next - Mizzou football will turn its attention to the 2026 campaign, as the offseason has officially arrived.
