Mo Toure wasn’t passing up another season at Miami: ‘Why not be a Cane again?’
Linebacker Mo Toure was all smiles when he reminisced on perhaps his signature moment thus far with the Miami Hurricanes. It was Miami’s first-round College Football Playoff game against the Texas A&M Aggies, who were at the UM goal line with seconds left on the clock facing second down. Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed tried to throw a pass over the middle to Rueben Owens II. Toure was there to lay out a jarring, game-saving hit to force the incompletion.
Freshman safety Bryce Fitzgerald logged the game-sealing interception on the next play.
Toure was knocked down briefly after his play and had to be held back by team personnel from joining in on the celebration after Fitzgerald’s interception.
“The lights went dark for a little bit,” Toure said Wednesday, reflecting on that moment, “and then the lights came back on. We were good.”
The light on Toure’s brief Hurricanes tenure appeared to go dark after last season, his lone campaign with Miami which ended with a trip to the national championship game and with Toure playing his best football when the games mattered the most.
But when Toure, 24, found out he still had one more year of eligibility to use in a college career filled with injuries, trials, tribulations and perseverance, he wasn’t passing it up.
“Why not be a Cane again?” Toure said.” This is a legendary place. It’s an amazing place. Why not be able to stay with coach [Mario] Cristobal and [defensive coordinator Corey] Hetherman and just learn more, absorb more, grow more, get better, get more healthy and just attack another season?”
And so Toure is set for his eighth — yes, eighth — season of college football. He redshirted his first season on campus at Rutgers in 2019, received an extra year of eligibility in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and had two medical redshirts, in 2021 and 2023, when he sustained season-ending ACL tears. The only years that actually have counted toward his eligibility clock were 2021 and 2023 at Rutgers and last season at Miami.
“The time adds up,” Toure said.
He’s also going to be one of the last of his kind.
The NCAA this offseason passed a new age-based eligibility model, known colloquially as the “5 for 5 rule.” Starting with the 2027-28 athletic season, student-athletes can play up to five full seasons at the college ranks and must do so in a five-season span starting with their freshman season or the season that correlates with their 19th birthday, whichever comes first. Redshirts for whatever reason are now a thing of the past.
For players who were already enrolled in college, schools will apply whichever rule (the old format or the new “5 for 5” format) that is most beneficial to the player.
With that in mind, Toure doesn’t plan to take this season for granted.
“I’m just blessed that God gave me the opportunity to get up and play football again, play the game I love again,” Toure said. “I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I know I’m blessed to be here. I’m blessed to attack every single day. Some people get to take the elevator, some people get to take the steps. As long as you elevate, that’s all that matters.”
Toure’s presence certainly elevates Miami’s roster. He’s the central piece in the middle of Miami’s defense. He led the Hurricanes last season with 84 tackles while also logging six pass breakups and two sacks.
And he did that despite not feeling 100% like himself until around the time the playoffs started, a consequence of still feeling the aftereffects of his latest ACL surgery.
But in Miami’s four playoff games — wins over Texas A&M in the first round, Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl and Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl plus the title-game loss to Indiana — Toure had 30 tackles.
“When you’ve got to cut both of your knees open, they say it usually takes a year and a half to two years to fully get back to yourself,” Toure said. “I understood that. I knew that. I just felt like going into last season, I wasn’t fully me until the playoff run. That’s when I feel like I started to get my feet back under myself. I started to play more like myself.”
And now Toure is back and set to anchor the position where Miami perhaps needs it the most. Toure and redshirt senior Chase Smith are the veterans of the group. Beyond those two, however, is a relatively inexperienced group that includes redshirt junior Kamal Bonner (who played sparingly last season), junior Cam Pruitt, sophomores Ezekiel Marcellin Jr. and Kellen Wiley Jr., and freshmen JJ Edwards and Jordan Campbell.
“He’s excited to be the most experienced linebacker in the country,” Cristobal said. “I think he’s the best one. I think he’s tough, physical, a great blitzer, great tackler. Can line up the defense, make the calls, make the adjustments. Can play in space. Physical, physical guy, and a guy that can really set the tone in the locker room.”
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