Toriano Pride is confident in Mizzou's veteran corners
When he transferred from Clemson to Missouri, Toriano Pride instantly became a key part of the Tiger secondary.
The former four-star recruit out of St. Louis was coming home to help lead the Tigers to an improvement on their 11-2 breakout season in 2023.
And he helped improve the Tiger defense to a top-20 unit in passing yards allowed per game.
Now, Pride returns as one of the leaders in a group returning all of it’s primary production from what was a three-man rotation last year. Plus, the addition of redshirt senior Stephen Hall from Washington State.
“We all worked out in the summer together,” Pride said. “We all trying to get each other better, we pick each other’s brains. So, like, whatever Stephen knows, he’ll tell me, or whatever I know, I’ll tell (redshirt senior Dreyden Norwood).”
That core group of three older corners has turned into a triangle, Pride said. Norwood is entering Year 5 of college football, Pride is going into Year 4 and Hall is going into Year 6.
Pride said the addition of the experienced Hall has already helped the returning corners.
“He’s really smart,” Pride said. “Honestly, I knew he was an older guy, but I didn’t know he did two years of JUCO then went to Washington (State). So I didn’t realize he was that much older than me. I thought he was like Dre Norwood’s age.”
Teaching the future
That elder triangle has helped set up the Tigers for success not just this year, but into the future.
Pride said the group has been helping the younger corners, including returning rotation member Nick Deloach, who is going into his redshirt sophomore season. The older Tigers are also helping to bring along redshirt sophomore Shamar McNeil, true freshman Mark Manfred and redshirt freshman Cameron Keys.
Keys was one of the standouts of the Tigers’ first fall scrimmage, earning a shoutout from both Pride and senior linebacker Khalil Jacobs.
“We all help each other, even with the younger DBs, they all like follow up on us,” Pride said. “So it’s just we’re all making each other better, basically, and that’s gonna correlate to Saturday’s. So just gonna help the team get better on the defensive side.”
While Pride is helping the younger corners develop, he is still working on himself as well. And the senior with three career interceptions, two last season including one returned for a touchdown in Week 1, has some specific parts of his game he wants to improve.
“Biggest thing I probably said I want to do going into fall camp… my ball skills,” Pride said. “Like, whenever the balls in the air, get my head around, or like, getting interceptions.”
Pride has more time to work on his abilities with the ball in the air. Fall camp continues and the Tigers’ season opener against Central Arkansas is still weeks away on Aug. 28. But it grows closer every day.
“It’s been going good,” Pride said of fall camp. “You know, we still got, … I got a lot more time to keep working on it.”
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