Coming into the 2024 season, the Missouri Tigers had a lot of production to replace among the cornerbacks.
But coming into 2025, the Tigers are returning all but 40 total snaps out of 890 snaps played in the cornerback room, led by the entire main returning rotation of Dreyden Norwood, Toriano Pride Jr. and Nicholas Deloach Jr.
Add in the addition of Stephen Hall through the transfer portal, three-star incoming freshman Mark Manfred and the return of redshirt sophomore Shamar McNeil and redshirt freshman Cameron Keys, and the Tiger corner room is filled with both production and potential.
“Very excited about those guys,” Missouri football coach Eliah Drinkwitz said.
Norwood, returning as the primary player from last year’s rotation, was injured off and on through spring camp, leaving more opportunities for everyone else.
“Norwood was beat up a lot during the spring, which was a positive for everybody else because that allowed Stephen Hall, Toriano Pride, Nick Deloach, Cam Keys, you know, Mark Manfred our true freshman, to get in there and really get going at that position,” Drinkwitz said.
And according to Pride, the group used those opportunities to focus on individual development and improvement.
He said with so many returning players, there could be a lot of focus on just improving, instead of learning the playbook.
“I feel like we all got a lot better in our own ways,” Pride said. “(There's) a lot of room for improvement for each and every one of us, but I feel like everybody did pretty good. I feel like I did pretty good, I gotta do better for a few things, but overall, I think I had a pretty decent spring and I feel like the other guys should feel that, also.”
But along with that development for the returning players, there does need to be time to get new players up to speed. Pride said the biggest difference for him last year to this year was just knowing the plays already, meaning he can focus more on improvement than figuring out the right place to be.
So instead of leaving Hall to figure that out himself, Pride took the time to help him.
“He’s a good guy, he’s cool, he’s chill,” Pride said of Hall. “We talked outside of football. When he first got here, I was helping him a little bit before spring started with the defense, like some of the main coverages were going to go through, but he’s a good guy.”
There’s also been a focus on the young players, knowing that experience this year comes with a lack of it down the line as the core players depart in the next year or two.
Pride said the young guys in the room have been stepping up as well.
“Mark, he just came, he just got here probably two months ago, you could tell he’s fresh out of high school,” Pride said. “But you could tell he’s slowly getting it a little bit. Freshmen are gonna be freshmen, but he’s slowly getting it. We got Cam Keys, he’s picked, he’s developed a lot since last year. He’s doing a lot better, his mental is there, he knows the plays a lot better. So overall, I feel like he’s doing a lot better as a player, too. It’s good, the game is slowing down for him.”
With the younger guys improving, the experienced corners are focused on putting up an even better season than last year, with a likely expansion of the rotation from three players to four with Hall.
But no matter how things shake out, Pride is sure the group used spring camp to its full potential.
“Everybody has been getting better,” Pride said.
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