Tigers S Martez Manuel Making Sure Missouri Defense Doesn't 'Toot Their Own Horn'

Martez Manuel discussed the chemistry of the Missouri defense and how they treat the praise they receive.

The Missouri Tigers are coming off a 23-10 upset of then No. 25 South Carolina Gamecocks, with their defense leading the way in the dominant victory. 

Despite only sporting a 4-4 record, and sitting at 2-3 in SEC play, the Tigers are seemingly starting to turn things around a game at a time. Their defense is only allowing 18.2 points on 299.4 yards of total offense per game in conference play.

Even with their defense playing as well as it is, safety Martez Manuel is making sure his defense keeps their heads down and staying humble while not letting the praise go to their head. 

“It’s my job as captain to make sure we don’t toot our own horn," Manuel said. "People telling us we’re a great defense, that’s poison to us. I love our defense so much, we feed off each other’s energy."

“We all know success as a group is way more important than success as individuals, and we all want to make sure we do our jobs to not let down our brothers.”

The Tigers' defense has taken a definite step up from where they were last season when they allowed opponents 33.8 points on 434.6 yards of total offense per game. Now, they're playing together as a unit and firing on all cylinders. 

Of course, a two-game sample size is not enough to say that the Tigers have fully turned things around, but the defense is playing at a high enough level to keep them in games regardless of their opponent. 

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You can find Connor Zimmerlee on Twitter @Connorjz98

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