Missouri
How Toriano Pride has made case to start in Missouri football’s secondary
Missouri football, as Tigers assistant Al Pogue put it, lost a lot of mileage at cornerback.
The Tigers are tasked with replacing two NFL-bound corners, Kris Abrams-Draine and Ennis Rakestraw Jr., from their 11-2, Cotton Bowl-winning 2023 team. That’s a combined eight seasons and 63 games of college ball leaving Columbia.
It’s not an easy ask for Mizzou to quickly replace that experience. But the 2024 squad appears, upon early indications, to be in good hands.
Literally.
During Missouri’s Black & Gold spring game Saturday on Faurot Field, St. Louis native and Clemson transfer Toriano Pride Jr., playing in front of MU fans for the first time, made a quick impression.
In man coverage against eventual spring-game offensive MVP Joshua Manning, Pride went leaping for quarterback Brady Cook’s deep ball targeted at the receiver outside of the numbers on the left side of the field. The coverage was exemplary. Pride’s leaping frame completely blocked the view of Manning, who dragged the corner to the ground but did nothing to prevent what was done.
In his first taste of live football in front of fans on Faurot, Pride intercepted the pass — the two-handed, no-juggling, no-doubter variety of pick.
“They tried to go big fade ball to the field,” linebackers coach D.J. Smith said after the spring game, “(but) Toriano Pride’s a gamer, man. … It’s good to have him here.”
Pride is the former teammate of star wide receiver Luther Burden III at East St. Louis High. He was the second-ranked prospect out of Illinois in the Class of 2022 — second behind Burden.
The Clemson transfer played 26 games over two seasons for Dabo Swinney’s team, making three starts. He has 36 total tackles, a couple of which for loss, and an interception to go along with nine pass breakups.
In a unit left wanting for game experience on the big stage, that’ll play.
And it more than likely will play with Missouri’s most experienced returning corner.
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Before spring camp started, MU head coach Eli Drinkwitz indicated that Missouri’s other starting cornerback was going to be tough to usurp.
Dreyden Norwood, a former Texas A&M transfer and now third-year Tiger, was the man to beat. He filled in for an oft-injured Rakestraw admirably, starting in the Tigers’ Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State and four times before then. He has now made 25 total appearances for MU.
“I think we would all be kidding ourselves,” Drinkwitz said, “if we didn’t believe that Dreyden Norwood was ahead of everybody else.”
There aren’t many indications that anything changed on that front through the practices that shaped spring camp.
“I’ve been really pleased with Drey’s growth,” Pogue said. … “He’s just letting his natural ability come through and (making) plays, and I think the biggest thing for him is, you know, you can see the confidence. He has the confidence that he can compete in this league.”
Added new MU defensive coordinator Corey Batoon on March 9: “The Norwood kid’s had a really good camp. He’s made some plays on the ball, he’s been very consistent. I think that on the back end, he’s really stood out.”
The Tigers ran with Norwood and Pride, on different teams due to the nature of the Tigers’ pre-spring game intrasquad draft, on their respective lineups right out of the gate Saturday. Shamar McNeil, Marcus Clarke, Ja’Mariyon Wayne and Nicholas Deloach were among the corners to see the field.
Those four, along with true freshman Cameron Keys and summer enrollee Jaren Sensabaugh, will likely shape up the fight for time behind Norwood and Pride.
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Clarke has played 15 games over two seasons since transferring from Miami shortly before the 2022 campaign started. He had two interceptions in a reserve role last season, against Memphis and at Kentucky, but Pogue said he wants the room’s oldest corner to be more consistent.
Pogue mentioned that he recently met with McNeil, a redshirt freshman who drew compliments from both Rakestraw and Abrams-Draine in 2023 as a true freshman, and said he’s seen some day-to-day improvement, but that the underclassman is “not where I want him to be.”
The cornerbacks coach indicated that wide receiver turned cornerback Ja’Mariyon Wayne also will have a role in the future.
“One day it’s gonna be his time, I’m gonna drop the leash on him,” Pogue said, “and say, ‘I told you guys.’”
For now, Norwood is the most likely lock for a starting role when MU opens its 2024 campaign Aug. 31 against Murray State.
Across from him, Pride, with a quick Faurot pick, has emerged as the frontrunner.
“It was really big to acquire a player like (Pride),” Pogue said. … “It’s evident we have to replace two really good players that we’ve currently lost, and for him to come in and have that experience, … it was really big for us to get him. I mean, he’s definitely a plus to our room.”
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court opened the door Tuesday to abortions being halted again in a tumultuous legal saga after voters struck down the state’s abortion ban last November.
The state’s top court ruled that a district judge applied the wrong standard in rulings in December and February that allowed abortions to resume in the state for the first time since they were nearly completely halted under a ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In Tuesday’s two-page ruling, the court ordered Judge Jerri Zhang to vacate her earlier orders and re-evaluate the case using the standards the court laid out.
The state emphasized in their petition filed to the state Supreme Court in March that Planned Parenthood didn’t sufficiently prove women were harmed without the temporary blocks on the broad swath of laws and regulations on abortion services and providers. On the contrary, the state said Zhang’s decisions left abortion facilities “functionally unregulated” and women with “no guarantee of health and safety.”
Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said he was “extremely excited” by the Supreme Court order.
“This means that our pro-life laws, which include many health and safety protections for women, will remain in place,” Lee said. “How long they will remain we will have to see. But for right now, we would expect that Planned Parenthood would stop doing any abortions until the court rules otherwise.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, police arrested a suspect in a fatal shooting that happened on the streets of Westport at the start of the Memorial Day weekend.
30-year-old Marquis Ponder is facing charges related to the homicide, according to the police department.
‘We have to do better’: 3 shootings in Kansas City, Missouri over holiday weekend
Two men got into an argument outside a smoke shop Friday afternoon on Broadway Boulevard. The argument ended in gunfire, adding another homicide to this year’s count in Kansas City.
Police identified the victim as 30-year-old Levon Quinn.
There have been 63 homicides in the first five months of 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri.
“This is Westport, this is a very busy area,” KCPD Public Information Officer Alayna Gonzalez said on Friday after the shooting. “It’s very heavily traveled, there’s a lot of surveillance footage.”
Al Miller
That surveillance video has been going around on social media sites.
It shows a man, believed to be the 30-year-old Quinn, leaving a business, Dr. Smoke.
He got into an argument with another man. Quinn turned away to leave when the other man pulled out a gun and shot the victim.
The suspect in the video, believed to be Ponder, ran away as the victim got into his car.
Police say Quinn attempted to drive to the hospital, but he crashed into a motorcyclist along Mill Creek Parkway.
He died by the time officers got to him. The motorcyclist was reported to be okay.
“I do find it interesting that somebody would think an area that is as busy and heavily populated as [Westport] would think that an argument escalating into gunfire would even be worth a Friday evening,” Officer Gonzalez said.
Police arrested 30-year-old Ponder later Friday night, charging him in connection with the homicide.
The metro saw shootings on Saturday and Sunday, too. An argument on Troost and 56th on Saturday evening ended with one man dead and two people hospitalized. A shooting in the Crossroads on Sunday morning left one person with life-threatening injuries.
“Arguing and escalating to gun violence is completely unnecessary,” Officer Gonzalez said. “We have to do better.”
This weekend’s violence comes as KCPD is working to crackdown on crime, including illegal street racing and sideshows, in entertainment districts.
The department stated they issued 35 citations, six custodial arrests and towed six vehicles in entertainment districts like the Crossroads and Westport over Memorial Day weekend.
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KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne covers issues surrounding government accountability and solutions. Share your story with Isabella.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One person suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds early Sunday morning in the Crossroads Arts District in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas City, Missouri, police officers working off-duty heard several gunshots in the area of East 18th and Oak streets.
They found the shooting victim, and he was taken to a hospital.
No arrests have been made.
Detectives are investigating what led to the violence
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If you have any information about a crime, you may contact your local police department directly. But if you want or need to remain anonymous, you should contact the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Depending on your tip, Crime Stoppers could offer you a cash reward.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
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