During spring practice last March, Rutgers Football linebacker Mohamed Toure tore his ACL in a one-on-one drill. He knew it was bad right away.
“I couldn’t walk,” he said.
A year later, Toure is healthy and ready to go.
“It’s amazing. I love being back with my brothers playing the game again,” Toure on Saturday after practice inside the bubble. “Being away from it made my love for football grow. Happy to be back. I don’t think about it honestly. I feel confident and just play ball.”
Toure said being out was not only tough on him physically, but mentally as well. The good thing is, he got to go through the healing process and the injury as a whole with fellow freshman Moses Walker, who also got hurt in the spring after enrolling early.
“It was rough, but I was focusing on my rehab,” Toure said. “Mentally it was tough. I had to attack things every day. I had to control what I could control.”
Being on the sidelines allowed Toure to see the field and learn the defense from a different vantage point. He was able to better understand the new defense at the time under defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak. Learning football in general more was something head coach Greg Schiano mentioned about Toure when he was a freshman three years ago.
“I learned a lot and I got to really dive in on our playbook at the same time and master it inside and out,” Toure said. “I got to sit back and see the field from a different point of view. Watching how everything plays out and seeing schemes, it helped a lot.”
Toure registered 4.5 sacks in both 2021 and 2020 to lead the team each year. Rutgers finished third to last in the Big Ten a year ago with 20 total sacks. Toure will be a major addition to the defense that made strides a year ago as a whole.
“Mo is an unbelievable player. He led the team in sacks prior to getting injured for two years,” Harasymiak said. “Our job as coaches is to put him in places where he can use his ability. We’ll move him around. He’s doing a great job.”
He is such a multi-dimensional player,” Schiano said of Toure. “He’s a phenomenal player. He’s bigger and stronger than he was. I’m excited about getting Mo back. He was a big loss.”
Toure spent much of his first few years coming off the edge of the line of scrimmage, but you might see him in a more traditional linebacker role as well.
“I’m an athlete. Wherever coach needs me to play I will,” Toure said. “I love linebacker. I just love football.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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