Five Takeaways from Mizzou’s 13-7 Gator Bowl loss to Virginia

Mizzou’s 2026 season ends with an 8-5 record after losing the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl to Virginia. Missing a host of offensive players to transfers and injury, Mizzou’s offense failed to put up any points after the opening drive, making Virginia’s lone touchdown and two field goals enough to come out on top.

Here are your five takeaways.

1. Dominated

Bowl games may not matter in the grand scheme of things. But despite what you may be told, they do have an impact on fan perception of a program. And Mizzou’s performance against Virginia will certainly leave a sour taste in mouths for the next few months.

Mizzou, a team that prides itself on a dominant run game and time of possession, was out-possessed by almost 17 minutes of game clock. A defense that made its bones on third-down conversion allowed the Cavaliers to convert 13 third downs for a 56.5 percent rate. The First Team All-American running back? Held to just 15 carries on the night, including conspicuous absences in critical, late-game moments (despite averaging 5.9 yards per carry.)

Don’t let the one-score outcome, or the fact that Mizzou nearly came back to win it late, fool you. The Tigers were flattened by Virginia in Jacksonville. Eli Drinkwitz and his staff will have plenty of bulletin board material to use for next season just based on this game alone.

2. So those final two plays…

I had written out a whole takeaway about how bad Matt Zollers was tonight. And by no means was he good. But the final drive, which saw him uncork a few mouth-watering throws, redeemed his performance somewhat. Unfortunately, an ultimate redemption was taken out of his hands by the referees.

With Mizzou sitting at the edge of the red zone on third-and-10, Matt Zollers scrambled to his right and threw a ball away under pressure from a Virginia defender. Then, after the ball had been out of his hand for a good second, another Cavalier came barreling in to lay a blind side hit on the freshman, whipping his head onto the turf and causing Zollers to grasp his helmet. After a few seconds of lying on the ground, Zollers bounced up for his final shot at the end zone.

Except it never came. The referees, using their discretion, removed Zollers from the game under the auspices of a possible head injury. Zollers, looking disconsolate at the decision, could only watch as walk-on Brett Brown put a lob into the corner of the end zone that was broken up by Virginia’s defense.

Perhaps it’s the right call by the officials given the game’s lack of importance and Zollers’ obvious discomfort after the hit. But allowing the hit to go unpunished in the first place will add to the grievance Mizzou fans will feel given the referees then put the Tigers at further disadvantage by removing their best passer from the game.

3. All chalk, all the time

With Mizzou’s loss to Virginia, the Tigers end their season perfect against teams with losing records… and winless against teams with winning records.

A team’s record isn’t everything, and it shouldn’t be the only factor in how we evaluate the program moving forward. The advanced numbers say that Mizzou was one of the country’s top 25-30 teams this year, and that’s meaningful when you play in the SEC. But it’s kind of poetic that this Mizzou team was exactly what it ended up on the scoreboard: Good enough to beat the bad teams, but not good enough to beat the good ones. It’s a tag that is starting to follow Eli Drinkwitz’s teams around, one that will be especially noteworthy given his new, eye-popping salary.

4. Shouts to Ahmad Hardy

It’s a downer note for his season to end on, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t call out Mizzou’s new all-time single season rushing champion. Ahmad Hardy started the game with a bang, rushing 42 yards to set up Mizzou’s only scoring drive of the night. And while he was inexplicably sat for much of the game, he was able to bust enough trademark YAC runs to brake Cody Schrader’s record of 1,624 yards on the ground.

All eyes will be on the First Team All-American when Mizzou takes the field next season, and it’ll be difficult for him to top what he’s already done in black-and-gold. But he’s earned those distinctions, as well as the right to have an offense built around him. Get to work, Mr. Lindsey.

5. All eyes on the transfer portal and draft

Mizzou’s season on the field is over. But off-the-field, things are getting hairy.

Will the Tigers bring in QB competition for Zollers? Can they rebuild their WR corps and secondary? Will there be any upgrades in the trenches? How many more players will they lose? Which eligible players will declare for the draft?

A lot of questions hang in the air, and we won’t have to wait too long for answers.

Thanks to everyone who reads these pieces each week. Sometimes they’re a lot of fun to write. Sometimes they kind of suck. They’re always a challenge, and the engagement they get makes a writer feel good.

Happy New Year, all! M-I-Z!