Meet Mo Toure, a ‘fast, violent, physical' linebacker ready to elevate UM's defense

Miami Herald

30-07-2025

Corey Hetherman was caught by surprise at first when he saw linebacker Mohamed 'Mo' Toure had entered the transfer portal.
Hetherman, entering his first season as defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes, had coached Toure for two seasons when the two were both at Rutgers. The coach knew his former player would be a perfect fit in Coral Gables.
'He's a guy that obviously I have a previous relationship with,' Hetherman said, 'and a guy that knows the defense, knows the style of coaching that we have and fits what we're doing defensively.'
Toure in early May committed to UM over Penn State, Indiana and North Carolina.
As the Hurricanes begin fall practice Thursday and start their monthlong countdown to their marquee Aug. 31 season opener against Notre Dame at Hard Rock Stadium, Toure looks to be a pivotal piece in part of Miami's revamped defense.
And Toure comes in with something to prove.
He's entering his seventh and final season of college football. That journey started in 2019 and has been extended once by virtue of players getting an extra season due to the COVID-19 impacted 2020 season and then twice more due to ACL injuries that wiped out his 2022 and 2024 campaigns.
Last year, he was named to the watch list for the Butkus Award, given annually to college football's top linebacker, before the second of those ACL injuries negated his chance to build on a breakout 2023 season — his final with Hetherman.
He's full go now, and ready to leave his mark on the Hurricanes.
'I feel great,' Toure said Wednesday at the Hurricanes' media day ahead of fall practices, adding that Hurricanes director of football rehabilitation Peter Galasso and head football trainer Adam Bennett have helped get him settled in at the end of his rehab after transferring in. 'I've been doing everything. I've been running and cutting, changing directions, lifting with the boys.'
And now the Hurricanes hope he will be a tackling machine once things start up for real. Toure had a breakout 2023 season, playing in all 13 games for Rutgers with eight starts. He was second on the team with 93 tackles and led the Scarlet Knights with nine-and-a-half tackles for loss. He had at least eight tackles five times, including in Rutgers' Pinstripe Bowl win against Miami.
'He's got tons of experience,' UM senior linebacker Wesley Bissainthe said of the 6-2, 236-pound Toure. 'He's big. He knows how to get to the ball. I feel like we're going to make an impact on the young guys in the room. That's the goal.'
Toure's style of play?
'Fast, violent, physical,' he said. 'You'll hear me every time. Trust me.'
But there came a time after that second ACL injury where Toure thought his football career might be over. The mental grind of having to go through the rehab process a second time was agonizing.
'When it first happened, I almost hung my cleats up,' Toure said. 'I felt like I was having bad luck, like 'Damn. Why me? Is God trying to tell me that this isn't for me?''
After that, Toure said he had 'a reality check.'
'I had to remember who I was,' Toure said. 'Remember you have a purpose in this life. You can't give up on your dreams. What kind of tone am I setting for my son, for my brothers, for younger kids that look up to me just to give up when things get tough? Nah. You've got to keep going. Keep pushing through hard times. You can't let anything break you.'
And now Toure finds himself front and center with a prime opportunity at Miami. The Hurricanes beefed up at the position following spring practices, adding Toure and N.C. State transfer Kamal Bonner through the portal to stabilize a position led by Bissainthe and followed from there by the likes of Raul 'Popo' Aguirre, Jaylin Aldermin, Chase Smith and Bobby Pruitt.
'It's always about competition,' Hetherman said. 'Competition is going to push everyone to always get better. I think we had a very good room. I think that [the additions of Toure and Bonner] just continues to expand that room. No one's going to take anything for granted. No one's going to stay where they are now. Everyone needs to constantly step up and improve their game.'
Toure certainly isn't taking this final chance for granted. He sees a chance to make an impact on a team with national championship aspirations. He knows how effective Hetherman's defense can be because he has seen it work.
'He's a guru,' Toure said of Hetherman. 'That man is smart. Even when I was at Rutgers, me and him used to meet for hours and hours and hours during the season, so it's definitely a blessing to be back with him and just be in a scheme that I'm familiar with.'
Now, it's just a matter of all the pieces falling into place. Toure, Hetherman and the rest of the Hurricanes defense has a month to get that done before the season begins.
'It's all about everybody being on the same page,' Toure said. 'Literally all the best defenses in the country, you look back from years and years and years, everybody was on the same page, whether it was the ones, the twos, the threes. Everybody knew how to communicate. They knew what they were doing, and they knew their job. Everybody did their job, and everybody played fast and physical. ... We've been taking the right steps in the right direction, and we just gotta continue to use camp to build on what we've started.'