Penn State's Shaka Toney pushes teammate P.J. Mustipher beyond his perceived limits

Shaka Toney earned second-team All-Big Ten honors while recording 6½ sacks last season. That makes him the sack leader among Penn State’s returning players.

But that’s only part of the reason junior defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher respects the Nittany Lions’ fifth-year senior defensive end.

The other part stems from a conditioning session last summer when Toney pushed Mustipher further than the younger player thought he could go.

Mustipher, 6-foot-4, 305 pounds, was doing pull-ups one day when he decided to use elastic bands for assistance.

“Doing pullups for bigger guys is difficult,” Mustipher said. “Shaka walks over and says, ‘You don’t need the band. You can do that pull-up. I’m not going to allow you to do the pull-up with the band.’”

Mustipher wasn’t sure he could do it, but all of a sudden, he did eight without the band.

“That goes to show you he cares so much about who you are and wants to develop you,” Mustipher said. “He’s not always going to tell you what you want to hear. He’s going to tell you what you need to hear.

“He’s been a leader of this team since I stepped on campus. He’s always pointed me in the right direction. It’s going to be some tough love with Shaka, but at the end of the day, he’s going to have your best interests at heart because he really cares about you and cares about the team as a whole.”

Mustipher said Toney’s upbringing helped him mature.

“His upbringing was different from mine. Shak’s from a rough place in Philly. I’m from a suburb of Baltimore (Owings Mills, Md.),” Mustipher said.

“I didn’t have to grow up facing the challenges that he did. I think that’s what made him.”