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COLUMBIA, Mo. — There’s something about Nicholas Deloach Jr. and taking leaps.

He did it in high school — really well in high school, to be precise, to the point he pushed for a triple crown of Illinois state championships in the triple jump, long jump and high jump.

Ahead of his second season as a cornerback at Missouri, Deloach has done it again. This time, his leap is developmental. And instead of landing on a mat or in a spray of sand, the Cahokia product has a chance to land on the field in a prominent role for the Tigers defense.

“He’s gotten a lot of reps with the 1’s,” coach Eli Drinkwitz said, referring to the first-team defense. Through recent preseason camp practices, Deloach has rotated with former East ĂŰŃż´ŤĂ˝ star and Clemson transfer Toriano Pride Jr., suggesting there’s a degree of competition for that cornerback spot.

Deloach is playing more confidently in 2024, coaches have said, which has made all the difference. Pair that with a degree of athleticism from a three-sport preps career, and Mizzou has the makings of a cornerback prospect it very much enjoys.

“Man, if I can not screw it up and just coach him up, you guys will be looking at me for a long time,” cornerbacks coach Al Pogue said in the spring. “He’s going to be really good for us.”

That the excitement around Deloach stretches back to the spring suggests that a breakout offseason shouldn’t have caught anyone by surprise. Even as a three-star recruit out of high school — nothing to scoff at but not a ranking of particular note to a Southeastern Conference program — the young defensive back had vaulted himself onto MU’s radar.

It started at a recruiting camp that Missouri hosted, one that Pogue remembers well. Deloach was a workhorse, playing eight games of seven-on-seven football in front of coaches. On top of that, Pogue and then-defensive coordinator Blake Baker asked Deloach to complete an individual workout so they could get a closer look at his game.

He left Columbia with a scholarship offer — one he earned “the old-fashioned way,” Pogue said.

At Cahokia, Deloach won the Class 2A triple jump with a leap of 14.12 meters. He was the runner-up in the long jump and finished third in the high jump, a trifecta of podiums that nearly gave him the jumping triple crown, which hadn’t been completed in Illinois since 2007. He won the triple jump again during his senior season, also running in the 4x400 meter relay.

Deloach also qualified for the state wrestling championships during his time at Cahokia, in addition to football stardom. Some of his takedowns from his grappling days have found their way onto the gridiron, he said.

“He’s extremely athletic,” said cornerback Dreyden Norwood, who will likely start opposite Deloach or Pride.

Still, Deloach’s transition to the college game came with some difficulties.

“Last year, being a freshman, being new to everything, I had a lot of anxiety,” he said. “I was nervous out there. I was overthinking too much, but I learned that you have to slow everything down, you have to trust your coaching and just play.”

The bright side was that Deloach redshirted behind Ennis Rakestraw Jr. and Kris Abrams-Draine, two cornerbacks who wound up being taken in this year’s NFL draft. Deloach is still in contact with the budding pros — “they check up on us, we check up on them,” he said — and took plenty of notes.

When spring ball rolled around, Mizzou saw a different type of player climbing the depth chart at corner.

“Nic Deloach is a guy that this was his first spring practices for us at Mizzou,” Drinkwitz said, “and I feel like really grew, competed and I know that we’re very excited about what he did.”

Pogue noted gains in the weight room, where Deloach worked intensely with athletic performance director Ryan Russell, which boosted Deloach’s already consistent performances in vertical jump and 40-yard dash tests — he regularly lands among the Tigers’ best in both drills.

The players he goes against in practice have also noticed Deloach’s improvement.

“On the defensive side, Nic Deloach has been looking really good at corner,” wide receiver Joshua Manning said.

Pride brings another year of experience to the competition with Deloach and seems like the favorite to start — though Deloach seemed to wind up in the first team more often during Friday’s practice that was open to media in its entirety and Saturday’s walkthrough that was open to fans. Veteran Marcus Clarke is also in the mix of depth cornerbacks.

As Missouri sees it, getting Deloach into a game could be key to further unlocking his ability and possible status as the Tigers’ cornerback of the future. At a minimum, his practice performances during spring practices and preseason camp seem to have solidified that.

“He’s got great man-to-man skills, he’s a really good athlete, can run, very smart, instinctual player,” Drinkwitz said. “He just doesn’t have a ton of confidence because he hasn’t had to do it on the main stage. But like we’ve told him: If you can cover Theo Wease, Mookie Cooper, Luther Burden, Mekhi Miller, Josh Manning and Marquis Johnson, you can cover anybody. I think that has built his confidence and his skill set.”