Toney out of his shell, ready to tell everyone
Shaka Toney doesn’t understand the obsession.
He doesn’t get why others have focused on his weight since the day he committed to Penn State in the summer of 2015. He was a 195-pound linebacker who was projected as a defensive end, so questions about his size were natural then.
“I hear it every single year,” Toney said. “I’ve never seen people so obsessed with somebody else’s body size. It’s creepy, honestly. I would understand if I was thin and maybe 200 pounds. (But) I’m 240 pounds. I’m a Big Ten defensive end. I make plays. I’m athletic.
“I’m willing to do anything it takes to help our team win.”
The 6-3 Toney weighed 243 pounds when the Nittany Lions began preseason camp nearly two weeks ago. A pass-rush specialist who relied on his speed in his first two seasons on the field, Toney’s now being counted upon to be an everydown player.
He’s expected to team with Yetur Gross-Matos for a formidable combination at defensive end.
“He has to be an every-down player,” defensive line coach Sean Spencer said. “He has better size and better weight, so he can sustain this. They run the football in this conference.
“I know we had some sacks
against Wisconsin, but they run the football as well as anybody I’ve ever seen. Them and Iowa, it’s a science the way they run the football. You have to be prepared for those confrontations.”
Toney contends that he’s been effective against the run, but he hasn’t been able to crack the starting lineup. He played in every game last year behind Shareef Miller, now a rookie defensive end with the Eagles.
“If you actually watch the tape, you can see that I can play (against the run) and I can do anything that anybody else can,” he said. “Yeah, you always want people to weigh more and to look a certain way. But at the end of the day, it’s about what you do on the field and what the numbers say.”
Toney played high school football in Philadelphia, like Miller, a mentor. He helped lead Imhotep Charter to a 15-0 record and the PIAA Class 3A championship in 2015, a runner-up finish in 2013 and three District 12 titles.
A three-star prospect, he received scholarship offers from Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple and West Virginia, among others, but quickly committed to Penn State.
“I shut down my recruitment really fast once I got the Penn State offer,” he said. “I didn’t want to go through the hype of recruiting. I was a big fan of Penn State. So was my family. It was an easy decision. This was the best place for me.”
After a redshirt year in 2016, he played in all but one game the last two seasons. He burst onto the scene in 2017 when he made four tackles against Georgia State, including two tackles for loss and a sack. Later that season, he twice sacked Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson (also now an Eagle) and forced a fumble.
But he was suspended from the Fiesta Bowl win over Washington for undisclosed reasons.
“Everything’s living and learning for me,” Toney said. “I don’t think anything I went through brought me down. I’ve learned something from every situation I’ve come across.
“(At the Fiesta Bowl) I learned I could handle not playing football and having to watch other people succeed. I learned how to be supportive if I’m not going to be on the field. A lot of guys might sit there and mope. I was ecstatic.”
Last season, he made five solo tackles in a lopsided win over Pittsburgh and then was fairly quiet until he tied a school record by making four sacks – all in the fourth quarter – in a 33-28 victory over Indiana. He finished with six tackles and a forced fumble on a day when Penn State needed him.
“I’m a good athlete,” Toney said. “I do good things on the field with my intellect. I’m a big film guy. Ask anybody. I probably watch some of the most film on the team. I love football. I love the game.”
With Miller and four other defensive starters in NFL camps, Toney has emerged as one of the team leaders. Younger players tend to gravitate toward him.
“He’s a guy who’s a leader vocally,” Spencer said. “He’s very intelligent. The room listens to him. The guys really follow him. He’s able to give them strong criticisms and he really doesn’t care who he ticks off. That’s the sign of a guy who’s trending to be a leader.
“He wasn’t always like that. Kudos to him and his mom and his sister. We’ve worked constantly to bring him out of his shell. Now it’s coming out.”
Toney also wants to be an effective player, especially one who can be on the field on every down.
“I think I relied more on my quickness and athleticism in the past,” he said. “Now I can do everything all-around. Our dline works every day on our strikes, our steps and being able to be dominant in the run game.
“It’s always wanting to do more and wanting to be better. You have to be patient in this world. Everything’s a process. I waited my turn for two years. I haven’t arrived yet. I have to earn the job. I’m here to compete.”