Missouri cornerback Dreyden Norwood, right, is greeted by teammates after he intercepted a pass in the second half of the Tigers’ victory over Boston College on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Columbia, Mo.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — There are times in practice when Theo Wease Jr. thinks the cornerback on the other side of the line of scrimmage knows what he’s about to do.
It tends to happen when the Missouri wideout is lined up against cornerback Dreyden Norwood.
“I feel like he played receiver before,†Wease said. “He knows what routes to expect (and) when they’re coming at certain depths.â€
Wease is close: Norwood does have experience playing on the offensive side of the ball — but not as a wide receiver. In high school, Norwood was a quarterback. He developed as a two-way player who operated in fundamentally opposed roles, turning into a cerebral primary cornerback for No. 9 Mizzou (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference), which plays at No. 25 Texas A&M (4-1, 2-0 SEC) at 11 a.m. Saturday on ABC (KDNL, Channel 30 locally).
“He’s really instinctive,†MU cornerbacks coach Al Pogue told the Post-Dispatch. “He has that ability to play cat and mouse. It’s a tribute to him being an offensive player for the majority of his life and understanding what guys are trying to do to you know as far as splits and spacing and releases.â€
It’s an important game for Norwood, not just because the Tigers will need him to continue minimizing opposing receivers’ production but because he’s facing his former school. Norwood committed to Texas A&M after emerging as one of the best prospects in Arkansas during his two-way career at Northside in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
He spent his freshman season with the Aggies, appearing in three games but entering the transfer portal after one year in College Station. Norwood transferred to Missouri in early 2022, arriving in Columbia about a month before Pogue did.
The new cornerbacks coach’s primary focus would be on the development of Kris Abrams-Draine and Ennis Rakestraw Jr., the tandem that reliably started for the Tigers for a few years apiece. Pogue didn’t really have a sense of what to expect from a young transfer like Norwood.
“All I knew of him was he was a really good athlete at high school, played quarterback, kind of all over the field,†Pogue said.
He got a sense of what Norwood brought to the table when the corner had to fill in for Abrams-Draine for a 2022 game against Florida. The Gators targeted Norwood four times in that game, according to Pro Football Focus, but he only allowed just two catches and broke up one of those passes.
“He had to play, and he held his own,†Pogue said. “I thought, OK, he may be ready.â€
But behind Abrams-Draine and Rakestraw, both of whom were selected in the NFL draft earlier this year, Norwood was stuck as a backup — what his coach called plug-and-play duty. His opportunities came because of absences.
One of those appeared for Mizzou’s game against Memphis last year, held in St. Louis in the Dome at America’s Center. Norwood only played 19 snaps before getting dinged up himself, but he swatted away the two passes thrown toward him while also recording a sack.
It was a turning-point performance — the kind of game that changed how MU’s coaches viewed Norwood’s potential.
“You could see the confidence (against Memphis),†Pogue said. “Then I started to go back and look at film and realized that he wasn’t giving up passes. He was always in the vicinity, breaking up passes, making plays on the ball, getting sacks. He quietly made a name for himself within the staff.â€
Norwood appeared in all but one of Missouri’s games last season, starting a handful down the stretch, including the Cotton Bowl, as Rakestraw battled a nagging injury. An understudy role was evolving into a leading one — though Pogue pulls from comic book pages in how he describes what Norwood needed to do.
“It’s like Batman getting hurt and now Robin’s the No. 1 crime fighter,†Pogue said.
This offseason continued the comic book parallels, casting Norwood as something out of a Dick Grayson storyline: With the original Batman — which is to say Rakestraw — out of the picture, he took on the superhero’s mantel.
For those not well-versed in DC Comics-speak, Norwood became the expected starter. With that came a new challenge to the cornerback’s growing confidence: expectations.
“With him being a former quarterback, my deal with him was, ‘Man, listen. You handled pressure by being a quarterback. Now I just need you to focus on the skill set because talent is not an issue for you,’†Pogue said.
The part of being a quarterback that involved studying film and learning game plans helped Norwood, too. That had been taking place within Mizzou’s meeting rooms while he backed up Abrams-Draine and Rakestraw.
“Luckily for Mizzou football, Drey was a really good pupil,†Pogue said. “He listened. He studied. He learned from those guys.â€
Playing against his former team — in his former stadium — will be a unique experience for Norwood. The Tigers have played Texas A&M rather infrequently since joining the SEC, so it will be the cornerback’s first reunion with the Aggies.
“It’ll be cool going back, but it’s not really something that I have circled,†Norwood said back in preseason camp.
It’s no surprise to Pogue that a defensive back so well versed in the mental game is level-headed when it comes to the prospect of a potentially charged game like Saturday’s.
“He’s been great. He’s not too high, not too low,†Pogue said. “Now, that may change once he’s actually in the stadium, but right now, his approach has been outstanding.â€
