How Missouri’s Toriano Pride Jr. has journeyed from hallways to football huddles

Toriano Pride Jr. raced down the hallway, ball in his hand.

His father — Toriano Pride Sr. — provided defense, thumping him with pillows as Pride Jr. did his best to bounce off the cushioned tackle attempts. Up and down the halls of their St. Louis home, the father and son battled against each other, one attempt at a time.

That memory is a distant but important one for Pride Jr., who went from hallway theatrics to playing college football in some of the largest stadiums in the country.

Each step of the way, no matter where the location, there is always one constant - his father’s presence.

“He’s my son; that’s it,” Pride Sr. said. “If he’s playing, I’m there.”

Pride Jr. began his tackle football career as a running back in second grade, playing that position all the way up until high school. In the eyes of many, Pride’s decision to slide into the backfield emerged from a desire to follow in the footsteps of his father, who also played running back at Cardinal Ritter High School and Jackson State.

But, in reality, Pride Jr. was too small to play anywhere else.

“That’s probably the only thing he could play because he was so small,” Pride Sr. said. “He could run, and I was the coach. So, I just put him at running back.”

Led by Pride Jr. and a coaching staff that included Pride Sr. as well as former St. Louis Rams running back Arlen Harris, the O’Fallon Renegades were a powerhouse. They suffered only two total losses from Pride Jr.’s second- to seventh-grade years, with the dynamic running back pacing the offense.

As the clock ticked down on youth and middle school football, though, Pride Jr.’s time on offense did as well. The then-freshman at Vianney High School switched to cornerback, quite an adjustment for the former rusher who had grown accustomed to making opposing defenses miss with the ball in his hands.

“(It was difficult for him) because the people with the ball get the fame,” Pride Sr. said. “They score touchdowns, so when he switched over, it was kind of boring to him.”

Coached by his trainer — Jerry Stanfield — at Vianney, Pride entered with high expectations, even as a freshman. Despite the added pressure, the first-year cornerback helped lead the Griffins to the MSHSAA Class 5 championship in 2018.

Joining Pride on the state-championship squad was running back Kyren Williams, the current starting running back for the Los Angeles Rams. Williams, who played three seasons at Notre Dame, also trained under Stanfield and built a tight-knit relationship with Pride through that connection.

“Kyren is sort of like a big brother to (Pride),” Stanfield said. “He would tease Toriano, but it was more in a way to encourage him to see his greatness. The guys three or four years older than Toriano that trained with him all saw his greatness.”

Following Vianney’s state championship run, many staff left for other jobs, and, as a result, several players left too. Pride joined in on the exodus, departing for Lutheran North, where he landed under the mentorship of then-Crusaders coach Carl Reed.

Lutheran North brimmed with talent, and it immediately showed, as Reed coached the Crusaders to a perfect 14-0 season, culminating in a Class 2 state championship.

Stacked into a secondary that eventually produced three other Division I players (Antonio Doyle, Cam Griffin and Aubrey Park), Pride started every game at cornerback and was a star for the team on the way to his second straight state championship on as many teams.

“He was the best corner on the team,” Reed said. “There was a lot of great players on that team, but you could put him on the No. 1 receiver on the other team and you could pretty much understand that (it) was going to be taken care of.”

Buoyed by his early prep success, Pride still leapt up recruiting rankings despite the 2020 season being cut short because of COVID-19.

From Dec. 11, 2020, to Feb. 26, 2021, Pride jumped from 337th to 73rd in the 247Sports rankings, racking up offers from several of the nation’s most illustrious programs in the process.

“When Toriano first went into high school, one of the things that we talked about was, ‘Where do you land? Where are you ranked in the country?’ And at that time, he wasn’t ranked anywhere,” Stanfield said. “Each year, that was his goal - continue to work. He has a tremendous work ethic.”

Following his junior season, Pride transferred once again. He joined forces with another familiar face at East St. Louis High School, teaming up with former five-star receiver and current Mizzou star Luther Burden III. Together, the pair guided the Flyers to a 7-2 record.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz recruited both players, and after he landed the commitment of Burden, many expected the relationship of Burden and Pride to play a part in keeping the cornerback close to home.

But, in the end, Pride committed to Clemson, citing the open communication that then-Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables had developed with the family as a main reason why.

Nearly three years later, though, Mizzou would have a second chance.

‘We’ve got to go home’

An unexpected end to Pride’s career at Clemson began on the bench.

One season after appearing in eight games as a freshman, Pride did not see the field in Clemson’s 28-7 loss against Duke to open the 2023 campaign. That decision came as a surprise to Pride, who had expected to be a part of a cornerback rotation.

Blindsided by the move, Pride Sr. had a conversation with Clemson coach Dabo Swinney about whether the plan remained the same with Pride Jr. But the discussion only further clouded Pride’s future at Clemson when Swinney called out the sophomore in front of the team about Pride’s parents calling him.

It was at that point when things between Pride Jr. and Clemson truly started to snowball.

“I think when (Dabo) did that, the trust was fractured,” Reed said. “I can put myself in (Dabo’s) shoes and say, ‘Well, the parent called me.’ But he created the environment for the parent to call you. He created that. When that happened, and you did it in front of the team, you kind of put the kid in a bad spot and you kind of alienated him in the locker room.

“We don’t have any issues with Dabo,” Reed said. “It’s really just business to me. I look at it no differently from when a position coach leaves for a different coaching job. Everybody always wants to know who is upset, but there’s really nothing there. We all have a lot of respect for Coach Swinney.”

While there were no harsh feelings between the Pride family and the staff at Clemson, the cornerback elected to enter the transfer portal with a no-contact clause at the end of the season, emphasizing that he did not want teams to reach out to him with offers.

That was because he immediately knew where he wanted to go.

“At that point,” Pride Sr. said, “he thought, ‘Hey, we’ve got to go home.’”

Shortly after entering the portal, Pride announced Dec. 6 that he would be transferring to Missouri, just 90 minutes from his family. It marked a second chance for Drinkwitz and Missouri, who finally earned the commitment of a player they sought as a building block for the program.

Pride needed less than one quarter in a Missouri uniform to show why he could fill that role.

The junior cornerback intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown in front of his 20-member family fan section, opening his career at Missouri with his first collegiate touchdown.

“Oh, man, they were going crazy,” Pride Sr. said. “(When he transferred to Mizzou), my whole family was excited. Fifteen to 20 people come to every game.

“It was just huge for my family.”`

It also proved to be an impactful day for Pride Jr., whose hallway to success now runs through Memorial Stadium.

Copyright 2024 Columbia Missourian

This story was originally published September 13, 2024 at 1:03 PM with the headline "How Missouri’s Toriano Pride Jr. has journeyed from hallways to football huddles."