The first concrete update on Ahmad Hardy sounded almost clinical, the way Eli Drinkwitz delivered it from the SEC Media Days stage in Tampa on Monday — bullet struck bone, bone fully healed and cleared, return-to-play protocol beginning. Then the Missouri head coach let the reality underneath those words breathe for a second.

By Tori Maddox

Tori Maddox will gladly spend an hour dissecting the glorious theater of tailgate culture and the latest jersey crimes before burying you in cold-blooded red-zone efficiency splits. She holds a career winning percentage against the office picks pool that she will happily remind you of at every opportunity. Tori has absolutely zero patience for anyone who underestimates her, and her matchup data speaks for itself.