Tyler Badie runs again for 200 yards plus, breaks Missouri’s single-season rushing mark
Tyler Badie has cemented his legacy as one of the best running backs in Missouri football history.
With his 219-yard performance in Friday’s loss to Arkansas, Badie became the program’s all-time single-season rushing leader, breaking a record that had stood for over two decades.
Badie passed Devin West’s mark of 1,578 rushing yards from the 1998 season, setting the new record at 1,604 rushing yards. And Badie still likely has one more game to go, with the Tigers slated to play in a bowl game.
“He’s a special player, he’s a great competitor, he gives us everything he’s got,” Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “And for him to get that record, that’s a special thing. I know he’ll be disappointed in the result today, but I know he gave us everything he had.”
This has been quite the week for Badie, a senior who was named on Tuesday one of three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, given annually to the best running back in the country.
“It’s not about all the glitz and glamour and all the titles and stuff like that,” Badie said. “Just more about just doing whatever I can do for this team and helping them, just being able to be that spark plug for our offense.”
Though he faces stiff competition for the Doak Walker Award in Kenneth Walker III (Michigan State) and Breece Hall (Iowa State), adding yet another 200-yard rushing game to his resume will surely help Badie’s case for the prestigious honor.
It was Badie’s fifth 200-yard game this season, something no other SEC running back has been able to do this century. Derrick Henry and Leonard Fournette were the only two to come close, each with four 200-yard rushing games in the 2015 season.
“Definitely just a blessing,” Badie said. “I just thank my coaches, my teammates, you know, they just always believed in me, every day. It’s not even what I did, it’s just my O-line just riding for me, quarterback believing in me, Coach [Drinkwitz] believing in me, running back coach believing in me, it’s just the whole team believing. And I just feel like that’s just the biggest part about it is just believing in each other, just coming out for a bigger purpose other than yourself.”
Entering this year, Badie faced questions over whether he was ready to step into the shoes of Larry Rountree III as Missouri top running back.
He has answered those emphatically. Without a shadow of a doubt.
And then some.
This story was originally published November 26, 2021 at 7:16 PM.
