Why stopping was never an option for Mo Kaba, now coming back from third knee injury

“Three and out.” That was always the plan.

Mo Kaba had it all laid out going into his first year of college football in 2020. He had the blueprint for what the next three years could look like and what would come after that, which was a desire to become a pro.

But as he would later learn, the initial plan doesn’t always work out the way it was intended to be.

After three major knee injuries, Kaba is still at South Carolina in 2024, getting ready to return to action after the third and most recent injury he suffered in the first game of last season.

“When I was going through that process, it was real tough,” Kaba said on last year’s injury, which occurred right after he came back from his second ACL injury. “I tried so hard to get back as fast as possible. For that to happen in the first game, it’s unfortunate.”

The last two years have been indescribable for the now-redshirt senior linebacker. He came into 2022 as the Most Improved Defensive Player of the Spring with some lofty expectations, only to play in three total games over the last two seasons and see his season come to a swift end not once but twice.

Now as he completes the road to recovery for a third time, Kaba is hopeful for better days ahead this season.

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“I’m not going to stop”

It’s human to feel the way Kaba felt. To try and come back once from a knee injury is one thing. But to put in all that time and effort and see it essentially go to waste caused a lot of emotions for him, the biggest being anger.

However, while he felt so much anger after getting hurt again in last year’s season opener, Kaba said it was never towards anyone else. Rather, it was just something boiling up inside of him.

“There’s nothing at that moment I could’ve done to prevent what happened because what happened is going to happen. There’s nothing I could’ve done about it,” he said. “It was just anger towards myself of like, ‘Man, why is this happening?’ But God always has a plan for me, and I’m going to trust in the plan and just keep working.”

If it were anyone else, maybe they would’ve decided to give up. It would’ve been totally understandable considering there’s still so much life to live after football. But when asked if he even considered that thought, Kaba said stopping was never an option.

“If I was to stop, I would never know what the results would be from all the hard work I put in all my life. So I know I still got it. Unfortunate that it happened. But I’m not just going to wallow about it and say, ‘Oh, it’s over for me,'” he said.

“I’m not going to stop just because I’ve had multiple injuries. Many people would probably be done in my position. But I’m not in the same bracket as those people. I’m going to keep going because I know what I can do.”

Rather than look at the situation from a negative light, Kaba thought about some of the positives and what he could do to get back. After all, it wasn’t like he wouldn’t have another chance to come back to South Carolina and play again.

“I’ve still got three years of eligibility left — I’ve got time to show what I can do,” said Kaba, who could potentially stay seven years at South Carolina and eventually earn a Master’s Degree. “I’m going to compete and get my spot back.”

“It was hard”

Despite the few bright sides in his predicament, Kaba still had a long road ahead. It was going to take plenty of rehab to make a recovery, just like it had before. In between that also came a lot of down time.

While his teammates were playing through their season last year, Kaba spent a lot of time at home and in his room. Football has always been his pride and joy. So to not be able to play left a big void.

“It was hard. There aren’t many other things that keep me happy other than football,” Kaba said. “I tried just watching some shows, watching the games.”

During this time, the main genre of shows he would watch all revolved around anime. He was able to catch up on every episode of One Piece, a show that first aired in 1999 and is still going to this day, with its 21st season coming out back in January. In total, there are currently over 1,100 episodes available to watch.

But even with how big of an “anime guy” he admitted to being, Kaba still kept up with South Carolina and watched his team play every Saturday. And it would get quite intense in his home at times.

“Every time I would watch the games, I’m just screaming at the TV,” he said. “It’s like I’m watching live film right there. I enjoy seeing my boys have fun.”

Still, the big hole in his heart was still there. He needed football back in his life. He needed to be back out on that field and play alongside his teammates turned brothers.

“It was never a moment where my mind was taken off the injury because I’m living through it,” Kaba said.

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“I’m damn near right there”

After another year of rehabbing, Kaba is back in action, as South Carolina began fall camp last Friday. If there were any doubts about how Kaba would look after missing so much time, he feels like he hasn’t skipped a beat.

“Coming back from these injuries, the medicine that we’ve got nowadays, it’s not hard to come back from a knee injury at all. You’ve just got to be willing to put the work in for it,” Kaba said. “It just takes a little bit of time to get back to that 100 percent mark when you know, ‘Okay, I’m back to being me again.’ But after these couple days, I can say I’m damn near right there.”

In the first few days of practice, Kaba has been able to get through without any flare-ups. But that’s not really the issue. It’s more so trying to get back into a groove and knowing when to take a breather. That was something he couldn’t always bring himself to do when he went through camp in 2023.

“I would try to work through a lot of pain sometimes, but my body would tell me, ‘You need to slow down a little bit, back up a little bit. Get some treatment. Then come back again and attack it the next day,'” he said.

So while he might feel 100 percent right now, his coaches have been adamant about slowing things down. And that’s what he’s been trying to remind himself to do as well.

“I feel 100 percent, but my body might not be 100 percent. My mind and body’s probably not working at the same thing,” Kaba said. “So I need to, even when I feel like I can go full practice, sometimes I need to take a little bit of reps off and get more mental reps a little bit, rather than go 100 percent every rep, every play at the start of camp.”

South Carolina will have its first scrimmage of the fall at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday. This will be Kaba’s first real test to see how his knee holds up in a game-like situation, where he’ll be giving his all on the field.

Besides that, Kaba is just ready to get back out there and show what he can do, before all the injuries when he was fully healthy and a consistent player on defense.

“I just want to check off getting some big hits on Saturday, get that checked off the list,” he said. “Just running around, making tackles and plays. Just getting the first scrimmage out the way and see how I feel after that.”

It’s been a long road back to get to this point. It wasn’t what Kaba envisioned for himself when he first stepped foot on campus as a determined freshman. But soon enough, he’ll get his chance to be back out there and help South Carolina’s defense this season.

“Being gone for two years now, every moment that I have on the field is so fun compared to being in my room. I’m appreciating every little moment,” Kaba said.

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