Mo Toure Talks Injury Recovery, Young Miami LBs Emerging, Leadership Need

Miami Hurricanes LB Mo Toure is ready. Ready to lead. Ready to make plays. And ready to get back to that national title game. He made that all very clear on Mark Fletcher’s recent Ibis Media Podcast.

Toure, of course, led the team in tackles last season but missed spring ball coming off injury.

“I’m just studying the playbook, getting my body right, getting ready for the season,” Toure said. “I feel good, honestly. Coaches really took the time to come up with a plan for me this offseason, just get my body staying 100 percent.”

With a lot of players gone on both sides of the ball from last year’s team that made a run to the national title game, Toure stressed that both he and Fletcher need to step up as leaders “mentally, emotionally and in life.”

“Last season we had a lot more vets, older guys that played a lot of ball,” Toure said. “It was easier to lead because you had more leaders. This year we have a lot of guys that are very talented.”

Toure says in particular he’s taken linebackers Ezekiel Marcelin and Kellen Wiley under his wing.

“I love them,” Toure said. “They are going to be elite linebackers, I promise you. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses, and we’re trying to make our weaknesses our strengths and our strengths even stronger. EJ is a very physically gifted, very smart player on the field and he’s just learning how to slow things down, analyze film, attack things faster. Kellen, he’s a freak of nature. God blessed him with abilities of the best. And he’s smart as well.”

Toure is coming off a year in which he worked mainly at outside linebacker and ended with 84 tackles, 3 TFL and two sacks. One of his lasting highlights was a hard hit to knock the ball out from Rueben Owns to prevent a late Texas A&M TD that could have sent that playoff game to OT.

“You have to understand, I only played in two bowl games ever in my career,” Toure said. “Playing in a game that is that meaningful, it motivated me. Never been on that stage in front of that kind of game. I was just ready to go, that was the most motivated I’ve ever been. That playoff run was different. … Early in the season I was thinking too much, worried about the future, the past. Once the playoffs hit, that game, I was like `Man, go have fun.’”

Per Pro Football Focus he played 674 reps last season and ended with a 58.8 overall grade (72.8 run defense, 64.7 tackle, 72.4 pass rush, 37.7 cover grade). He was noted with 15 QB pressures and 16 missed tackles, and he allowed 43 of 61 completions when targeted, for 434 yards and 3 TDs.

He wants to be improved this coming season.

“You hear the stories about Greentree, the legends, you think `Okay, how’d they become great? How’d the help each other be great?’ … (I want to) grow in different aspects of my game, I feel I can be the best competing against the best. Every single day getting better.”

His pre-Miami background? Toure was part of Rutgers’ 2019 class and missed the 2022 and 2024 seasons injured.

“Going through injuries my whole career – injuries are more mental than physical,” Toure said. “For me, the physical part was always easy. It’s just the mental part, being away from the game, not being able to play for so long. Being injured, you’re isolated for a while. … It was tough. I’m grateful for it, though. What I’ve been through helps me be a better man, understand myself more.”

He had by far his most productive season at Rutgers in 2023 under current Miami coordinator Corey Hetherman with 92 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, a forced fumble, an interception and a pair of pass deflections. Toure was a two-year starter at Rutgers and was All-Big Ten honorable mention in 2023 and was named to the preseason Butkus Award watch list in 2024. He picked up from that point at UM last season.

“New Jersey compared to Miami is two totally different worlds,” Toure said. “It definitely took some adjusting. (Miami players) made it so easy for me to come in and feel like home.”

A final takeaway from Toure? He says he’s all about motivating himself without listening to outside noise. And he expects the same from his teammates.

“As a team we have to block that stuff out,” he said. “The media – you have to take that stuff with a grain of salt. This year we need to block it all out, and I feel we have the guys to do that. … can’t let the fire grow, have to kill it right then and there.”