Summer Feature: Elijah ‘Just Chill’ Hardy 2026 RB

The summer is full of off season and developing and unearthing potential elite talents. One such talent is a familiar name across South Florida, Miami Northwestern’s sophomore running back Elijah ‘Just Chill’ Hardy.  The rising junior is far from an under-the-radar prospect but one thing that took place during the 2023 season is his return to the running back position where he garnered wide-spread acclaim as a youth player.

The name ‘Just Chill’ is well known to all youth community of South Florida as the Miami Northwestern Bull running back made a big name beginning with the Scott Lake Vikings and transitioned to the Miami Gardens Chiefs where he took center stage. 

Hardy’s combination of speed and vision makes him elite.  And he’s so talented that he joined a loaded Miami Northwestern roster as a freshman and made the transition to wide receiver in order to get onto the field, though, much of his experience coming into high school was in the backfield; only proving just how versatile he is.

In 2023, you saw his emergence as a gamebreaker as he returned to his natural home, behind the line of scrimmage. So its time everyone take notice, once again of one of the premier running backs in South Florida who had a strong spring and will look to take the next step behind first year head coach and offensive coordinator, NFL veteran, Teddy Bridgewater.  

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Brandon Odoi is a tenured journalist. He's covered youth football since 8th grade, high school football since 2009 and began covering college football in 2011 as a beat writer for the University of Miami Athletic programs. In 2011, he founded Football Hotbed a national multi-media platform for football across the country. He's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and spent his first five years as a professional working at ABC Television Network, ending his career as a producer in Miami. He's married with two sons and resides in South Florida.

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