With a win, Toure and the Hurricanes will return to Miami to play for a national championship on their home field at Hard Rock Stadium and getting to this point has been an experience Toure hasn’t taken for granted.
At all.
“It’s honestly been a blessing. That first game [of the season], I just stood there and took it all in. I was in tears and I couldn’t stop crying because it was like, ‘I’m here. I did it,’” Toure said. “I had sacrificed and been through so much to get to that point. Now, this is the reason I came here. I knew this team was capable. I knew we were more than capable with the talent and coaches and everybody they have in this building. I felt the energy and this is the living proof. We’re here. We’re doing it. We’ve just got to keep it going.”
Toure joined the Hurricanes last spring after making the difficult decision to transfer from Rutgers, where he’d spent the first six years of his career and totaled 168 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks over the course of 37 games.
As much as he loved playing in his home state, the New Jersey native felt he needed a fresh start. He entered his name in the transfer portal and before long, heard from a familiar face – new Miami defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman.
Hetherman, who joined the Miami staff last January, had been the linebackers coach at Rutgers in 2022 and 2023 and knew all about Toure’s journey – and his skill set.
He knew bringing the veteran linebacker would give Miami’s defense an instant boost.
“He’s a guy that loves football and he’s a guy that wants to be playing with his teammates,” Hetherman said. “There are different guys that have done different things for this defense. There are guys that have stepped up in leadership roles. There’s guys that have pulled guys together. He’s a guy that he kind of knew the foundation and the structure of the defense. So, he had a start where everyone else in the spring had to learn it.
“He understood how we practice, how we play, the tempo, the style, how physical it is, how you finish plays, how you run to the football and how you swarm and then how you communicate. And I think that helped. In the spring, it wasn’t really where we wanted it to be and then in fall camp, we had a guy that could be like, ‘This is exactly what it looks like.’ … I think doing that all the way through camp and then on Saturdays has helped continue to develop and continue to grow the culture here.”
As the Hurricanes prepare to face Ole Miss, Toure has a team-high 69 tackles. He’s broken up five passes, notched two tackles for loss and has a sack, too.
He also made one of the most memorable plays of Miami’s playoff run, sacrificing his body to make a crucial stop during the Hurricanes’ CFP-opening win over Texas A&M.
With Miami clinging to a 10-3 lead and the Aggies inside Miami’s 5-yard line with just 33 seconds left, Toure broke up a pass from A&M quarterback Marcel Reed and delivered a bone-jarring hit in the process.
For a few scary minutes, Toure was down on the turf at Kyle Field, and more than 100,000 fans held their breaths waiting for him to get back up.
He did – and on the next play, Miami’s Bryce Fitzgerald intercepted Reed, sealing Miami’s win and sending the Hurricanes to the Cotton Bowl.
