Shaka Toney's love for teammates, and their reciprocation, a powerful force

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P.J. Mustipher didn’t know what Shaka Toney was going to say. He just knew, given the source, that it probably wouldn’t be what he wanted to hear.

A second-year defensive tackle with the Nittany Lions, the 308-pound Mustipher was in the Lasch Building weight room getting ready to do a set of pull-ups. For the bigger players in the program, the workout routine is performed using a resistance band to help the process along. Given the training aid by a Penn State strength coach, Mustipher was interrupted by Toney, the Lions’ veteran defensive end and vocal team leader.

“No, you don’t need that band,” Toney said.

Protesting that he had never done a traditional pull-up, Mustipher wasn’t able to change Toney’s mind.

“I’m not gonna allow you to do the pull-ups with a band right now,” Toney said, removing the band from the weight rack.

Uncertain of his strength, Mustipher knocked out a set of eight pull-ups, without any help, for the first time in his life. Said Mustipher, “He cares so much about who you are and wants to develop you. He does have tough love. He’s not always going to tell you what you want to hear. He’s going to tell you what you need to hear to improve.”

No one in Penn State’s locker room is more keenly aware of that reputation than Toney himself.

The fifth-year senior decided to return to Penn State following a junior season in which he totaled 41 tackles, eight tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and a forced fumble, winning second-team All-Big Ten honors from the conference coaches. In doing so, he spurned an opportunity to pursue his longtime dream of playing the NFL, waiting more than three weeks after the Nittany Lions’ Cotton Bowl win to announce his decision.

That choice proved complex. Understanding his role as a “big brother” to the 18 other defensive linemen in the room, Toney described his attachment to the group as one he couldn’t sever. It was one of the primary factors in his decision to return. The other factors were his desire to finish work toward a degree in rehabilitation and human services, and the championship aspirations he maintained heading into his last season of college football.

“I just thought in my mind, I have one more year left in me, and you think about the money and all that stuff, but it boiled down to relationships for me. I truly, sincerely love each and every one of those guys in my room,” Toney said in June. “And we have our Big Ten championship poster right as you enter the players’ locker room. I see myself on there every day, walking past that every day. I want that for myself. I want that for these guys, for them to know that feeling. I felt like I should be one of the people who should help this team get back to our promise as best I can.”

Leading into the August 11 decision to shut down all fall sports, leaving an uncertain spring option on the table, Toney was expected to be a big contributor, however unlikely that might have seemed upon his enrollment more than four years ago.

Rated a three-star linebacker prospect by Rivals.com, Toney was part of an Imhotep Charter team that won a PIAA Class AAA championship. But he was listed as a 6-foot-3, 200-pound defensive lineman when he signed in February 2016, and his long-term potential at the position was unclear. There were plenty of skeptics who doubted his ability to excel as a collegiate defensive lineman. Toney, however, was confident that he had what it would take to succeed, even in a conference as rugged as the Big Ten.

“When you’re an undersized guy, you’ve always got the belief that you can do it,” he said. “And just being able to see myself gradually do things that I always imagined myself doing – playing well against the run, making sacks in big games, making plays, being a leader, all those types of things – those are things that I wanted to improve every year, and I think I’ve done that.”

Following a redshirt year, Toney demonstrated that he had potential as a defensive end. He was up to 222 pounds by the spring of 2017, and by the fall he was listed at 233. Finishing his debut season with 20 tackles, 6.5 TFL, four sacks and a pair of forced fumbles, Toney claimed a spot on BTN’s All-Freshman Team.

The following year, his goal was to be consistently effective on every down. He steadily improved from a technical perspective, and by the 2019 season he had developed into a reliable starter. His 606 reps were the most of any Penn State defensive end last season, and according to Pro Football Focus, his season defensive grade of 81.2 was fourth on the team. The only players who graded out ahead of him were All-America linebacker Micah Parsons (91.6), fellow defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (84.7) and safety Jaquan Brisker (81.9).

By the time the season wrapped, the possibilities for his future left him feeling conflicted over the next steps to take.

“It’s very tempting, because you think, I know I can do it. It wasn’t about when I would get drafted, it was, well, I know I can get there,” Toney said. “You think about this since you’re five years old when you start playing flag football. You think about being that dude in the NFL, changing your family’s status, and things like that. That’s hard to say no to.”

Valuing his innate ability to work through complex problems with perspective, a trait frequently cited by teammates as being one of his best qualities, Toney ultimately decided that when it came to playing one more college season, the pros outweighed the cons.

“The NFL is not going anywhere,” he said. “Even with this corona stuff going on, if I get a degree and win a Big Ten championship and the national championship and do whatever I can to try to get my team to that point, I would feel a whole lot better than if I went to the NFL and ended up sitting a year or didn’t get that much playing time.

“I would never want to feel that regret. I felt like I didn’t know if I was truly ready to let go of Penn State, and I think that’s what allowed me to be able to make the comfortable decision with coming back.”

Confident in his talent, and maybe more important, the constantly improving nature of his career to this point, Toney has his eyes directed squarely on the opportunity in front of this group. With a team of brothers by his side, his influence easily seen throughout, he is eager to turn his vision into a reality.

“We’re so close-knit,” he said. “In our room, everybody is going to do whatever they can for you, and they’re going to make sure that you become the best player that you possibly can be. I think that’s something that we all genuinely just enjoy about each other. We just try to make sure that you understand that we’re going to run through a wall for you so you can run through a wall for us, and our talent is just going to show for ourselves this year.”

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