On a defense full of promise, there's one clear question Missouri football has to answer.
Can the Tigers find more consistent cornerback play in the 2025 season?
Mizzou's season-opener for the 2025 campaign against Central Arkansas on Aug. 28 on Faurot Field a little more than six weeks away. Fall camp is right around the corner, as the Tigers typically have players report to campus in Columbia over the final weekend of July.
Here is how Missouri's cornerbacks shape up heading into fall camp, including a projected (but not finalized) depth chart, the upside and possible questions for the room, and some snippets of what the coaches said during the spring:
Starters:Dreyden Norwood, r-sr.; Toriano Pride Jr. , sr.
Rotation/backups:Stephen Hall, r-sr.; Nick DeLoach, r-so.
Reserves:Shamar McNeil, r-so.; Cameron Keys, r-fr.; Mark Manfred III, fr.; Nasir Pogue, sr.
Norwood played more reps than anyone on the Mizzou defense last season, and preseason expectations suggest that's in store for the corner again.
The second starting cornerback spot is an open competition.
The main competitors, as we see it, are Pride, Hall, and DeLoach.
Pride, an East St. Louis High grad who transferred to MU last offseason, split time with DeLoach as a starter last season. To add competition, Hall joins the team from Washington State.
It's not impossible that McNeil or Keys — both of whom have been legitimately praised by their coaches in the past — jump into contention for a prime-time role, but until that happens, we think this is a three-player race for one spot.
The Tigers have, at times, used three corners in one of defensive coordinator Corey Batoon's third-down packages, so there is playing time available for whoever is CB3, too.
Mizzou was happy to leave now-NFL corners Ennis Rakestraw Jr. and Kris Abrams-Draine on islands at times in the 2023 season. They were good enough players to handle it.
The Tigers never truly had a player capable of doing that last season. Indeed, corner was probably Missouri's most inconsistent position group in 2024 — the room that most clearly lacked star power or a game-changer.
Mizzou doesn't need two NFL Draft picks to emerge from this room. That'd be nice, sure, but the Tigers need some consistency.
If Mizzou has College Football Playoff aspirations, the secondary needs to get better. Some experience and new pieces at safety ought to help out the corners, but there needs to be a step up across the third level of the defense.
That includes having a stable cornerback corps. The room has to be more consistent than it was in 2024.
This was the quietest position group on the roster this offseason. We've gone nearly the full spring and summer, and there's been barely a word about the Tigers' cornerbacks.
This could very well be one of those 'no news is good news' situations.
Here's about all we heard:
"Dreyden Norwood was beat up a lot during spring, which was a positive for everybody else," MU head coach Eli Drinkwitz said April 8, after camp wrapped up. "Because that allowed Stephen Hall, Toriano Pride, Nick DeLoach, Cam Keys, Mark Manfred, our true freshman, to get in there and really get going at that position. So, very excited about those guys."
Here's what we know about those players mentioned.
Norwood was a steady presence as CB1 last season. Pride has a really high ceiling but had bouts of inconsistency in the first season in Columbia after transferring from Clemson. DeLoach was the beneficiary of that inconsistency, earning some reps as the Tigers tried to find an answer at CB2 in 2024.
Hall is the newcomer and has five years of college football in tow, and joins as healthy competition out of Washington State. He has more than 1,200 snaps from his time at Wazzu alone.
There is competition, and that's a good thing for a room trying to find its footing.
Pride looked better as the season went on in 2024, and there's enough evidence to believe he's good enough to cement that second starting cornerback role.
Last season, he had two picks and four pass breakups. He forced and recovered a fumble. Perhaps his best games of the season were in the regular-season finale against Arkansas and a Music City Bowl win over Iowa, indicating progress throughout the year.
Pride has the big-play ability working in his favor.
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He'll have to earn the job, which is a good thing. DeLoach is long and athletic, and with an extra year under his belt, will almost certainly be a better player than he showed in 2024. Hall has a lot of college experience between Washington State and Northwest Mississippi CC.
That's a good situation for Mizzou. Someone either emerges as the clear second starting cornerback, or they push Pride to earn the job.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Can Missouri football produce steadier cornerback play in 2025?
