Missouri closed out the 2025 season with a dud on Saturday night, losing to No. 19 Virginia in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, 13-7.
The Tigers scored on their opening drive of the game but fell apart on offense after that. In the second half, they produced just 109 yards of total offense and failed to score a single point. The result? A fifth loss in 8 games to close out the year.
Mizzou opened the season with a 6-1 record and climbed as high as 15th in the AP poll. A College Football Playoff push seemed to be in play. But a quarterback injury forced the Tigers to turn to freshman Matt Zollers and work through the growing pains.
With Beau Pribula opting for the transfer portal, Mizzou turned back to Zollers for the Gator Bowl. He completed 12 of his 22 passes for just 101 yards with no touchdowns and an interception on Saturday.
Zollers looked like he might be driving Mizzou toward a game-winning touchdown on the final drive of the night, but after taking a late hit on a third-down throw and slamming his head hard on the ground, officials forced Zollers to leave the field for a concussion check.
Mizzou inserted walk-on Brett Brown, who had to attempt a fourth-and-10 pass from the Virginia 21 with the game on the line. His pass fell incomplete, Virginia took over, and Mizzou took the L.
One of the bright spots of the game, though, was Ahmad Hardy, who ran for 89 yards to break Cody Schrader’s school record and become Mizzou’s all-time single-season rushing leader with 1,649 yards. Hardy is the third Tiger in the past 5 seasons under Eli Drinkwitz to top 1,600 yards.
But Mizzou went long stretches of the game without even featuring Hardy on the field, particularly in the second half.
Mizzou’s defense did its job, limiting Virginia to 3.9 yards per play in the game and allowing just 1 touchdown. But the offense was a shell of itself with Drinkwitz calling plays. Zollers was picked off on Mizzou’s third play of the second half. The Tigers failed to gain a single first down on their next 2 drives. Then they turned it over on downs on their final 2 possessions.
The Tigers went just 3-for-12 on third down and 0-for-3 on fourth down.
Virginia 13, Missouri 7
Here’s the Gator Bowl box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Rapid Reaction: Missouri loses Gator Bowl after brutal offensive showing Saturday Down South.
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