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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 19, 2019Shaka ToneyUniversity Park, Pennsylvania THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. When you sat down and you watched some initial film of Ohio State, what were your first impressions? SHAKA TONEY: Physicality, speed, real good understanding of their scheme. They do what they do and they do it very well. Great athletes, well-coached, well-disciplined. Q. Can you evaluate the pass-rush for us. You are 11th in the nation, but more than half of those sacks came against Purdue and Idaho. How do you feel you have progressed? SHAKA TONEY: I'm not really sure I'm understanding what you're asking. Q. Are there any concerns with this pass-rush? Can you evaluate how that's progressed as the season has gone on? You have a lot of sacks, but it's top heavy against the two teams. SHAKA TONEY: If you watch the film, see a lot of people, they're getting rid of the ball fast. A lot of mass protection. Their teams aren't letting us just rush, meet the defensive ends, D-line. They're not letting us tee off on their quarterback. They're coming into the game with a plan a scheme, thing like that. I could tell you firsthand a lot of the O-linemen I watched on film, I'll come into the game and get something entirely different from their sets, the time they're punching it out of their hands. Things kind of spring up on us. We're making plays as we make them. We're going to keep working hard. Our group, we done a lot of things well, a lot of things to work on, we're going to keep getting better. Q. From your perspective, what excites you about this week's matchup? What are the challenges you see? SHAKA TONEY: Just another opportunity to play football. I know a lot of people that don't make it to this level. My friends, I have friends that have passed away, friends that have been murdered, things like that. I'm just grateful for another opportunity to play again. What was the second part of that question? Q. What challenges do they pose? SHAKA TONEY: Always a challenge to go on the road and win games. Winning isn't easy. If it is, everybody would do it. You got to come in and be prepared. You got to work hard throughout the week. Got to do whatever you have to do to make sure you can be 1-0 on Saturday. Q. In preparing for this game, how unique of a talent is Justin Fields? Do did you get to meet him at all when was a recruit committed to Penn State? SHAKA TONEY: No, I didn't have a chance to know him. Other guys that are in his age range, as far as his class, told me he's a really good guy. He didn't come here. He made a decision for himself. I leave no player at fault for that. Every program is different. You need to find the best fit for you. Can't wait to meet him, shake his hand. I heard he's a pretty swell guy. I feel real bad for him for what he went through at Georgia, if that was true. Nobody deserves to go through that. Q. You said shake his hand. I'm sure you also want to hit him. How do you counter a player who has the ability to do so much? SHAKA TONEY: He's special, of course. We don't single out any other player more than anybody else as far as the D-line. Most quarterbacks you're going to play in the Big Ten are going to be good or great, do something well. You just got to approach them the right way. You can't let him get out the pocket, things like that. You have to do your job as a defensive end. He makes plays with his arm and his legs, so we have to do whatever we have to do to try to keep him in check. Q. One of your offensive teammates, Pat Freiermuth, was not named a semifinalists. Any reaction? SHAKA TONEY: Reaction from me or... Q. You. SHAKA TONEY: I think individual awards are always nice. I'm pretty sure if we go 1-0 this week, he's going to forget all about that awards list. Those things, they can be biased. Sometimes people can get overlooked. It doesn't always tell the full story. Pat is hard working. If he keeps doing what he's doing, he's in the NFL, first-round guy, he's not going to be thinking about awards he missed out on. He's going to think about the times he had here, just like the rest of us. Individual accolades are okay, but championships, enjoying time with your brothers mean the world to you. Q. Do you look forward to games that are going to be harder? SHAKA TONEY: I don't look at no game no bigger or no smaller than any other. You see upsets. You see people get blown out. You see anything can happen in college football. If you think one team is so much better than the other, it's just a bad approach. We say 1-0 because that truly means something to us. Anybody can get beat. Doesn't matter how much time you have or what you're doing. Every dog has his day. Everybody has a great approach to the game. You have to treat everybody with the same amount of respect. Q. James was saying this is going to be a heavyweight fight. Do you have any memories of any games during your college, high school career, of a true heavyweight fight? SHAKA TONEY: First game come to mind is my city championship against archbishop (indiscernible) my senior year. Game came down to the wire. Anthony Russo, Shadow Russo, one of my Philly guys, I know he's doing well at Temple, threw a game sealing pick. I was in his face, he threw it to my runningback/linebacker. I think about the Iowa game when we went to Iowa the first time. That was just huge. I was a freshman at that time. I probably played four, maybe five snaps. I just remember the emotion from it. The Big Ten championship that we won, the Rose Bowl. All those games. Football truly is a momentum sport. If you don't react to the momentum the right way, you can get drown out. People can get down in a hole and let the game go, we'll play next week. You have a team like we watched Oklahoma come back against Baylor, you just got to keep fighting. If the momentum isn't swinging your way, you got to counter back, throw a hook, jab, something, make sure you never stop fighting. Q. Coach mentioned his 'great to elite' comment from last year. It went viral. What do you remember about the comment, what he said that night about taking the next step? SHAKA TONEY: I remember the comment. I just remember how it came off, but more what the message was. Being elite is truly something that is not easy to do. You're talking about being a top four team in the country to get to the playoffs, you're talking about being the last team standing to win a championship. You have to be elite. Little things do matter. You got to find a way every single day to beat elite teams like Ohio State, like Clemson, like Alabama. You can't say you want to be elite and not be willing to put the work in and do it. You have to come out every single day from January to December with an approach that you're going to be the best every single day. I think our team has responded well since that game. I think we come out the right way this year. We've had a lot of success. Our year isn't done. I think we are making those steps of becoming an elite team. Q. Are you still close with Deion Barnes? SHAKA TONEY: Yes. We were just speaking on Monday. Q. What was it about? Can I ask? SHAKA TONEY: Talking about film. Talking about things that I've done this year, things I haven't done well. I believe in using all research at my hands. I'll ask a guy on the street, a homeless man, about he played defensive end, technique, doesn't matter to me. I love football, love to learn. Any of you guys, doesn't matter, I'm always open to talk about football. You never can settle for learning. I think it's a huge impact on being able by using the resources at your disposal. Q. Give us a progress report on true freshman, Adisa Isaac. SHAKA TONEY: Going to be a first-round pick. That guy is coachable coachable. I wish I had that level of maturity at his age. It's crazy. He just turned 18. We always tease him, call him Young Deese, a pup. He don't talk much. He's a dream freshman. Don't get in trouble, asks a lot of questions. He knows his place. He's always around. He's a sponge like. I did some things like him. The things that he's doing now, I'm doing at this age now. It's just really impressive. I believe I already told me you can come out here and he'll ask me on a pass-rush what should I do. I can say dive, three burpees, a jumping track, spin, get a sack, he'll do it exactly the way I said it. No attitude. Comes from a great family home. I know he's going to be special. Y'all can quote me in a few years when he's getting ready to be a top pick in the NFL. He's going to be special. Promise you that. Q. You mentioned you like to get advice from anywhere. Where is maybe the source of advice that's meant a lot to you that maybe you didn't expect? What is the most unlikely source of the best advice you've received? SHAKA TONEY: Give me a second to think back to that. I have an answer. My niece, my redshirt year, it's hard, a lot of people doesn't know, you can feel separated from the team, you can feel alone, you're not home any more, you don't want to do school, you just want to go back to being a man at high school. My niece was younger at that time. One Thanksgiving, finally able to come home, haven't seen her in a long time. She seen I was down. Apparently she heard my mom over the phone with my sister talking about how I was feeling. She came and gave me a hug and told me, No matter what you have to do, just get it done, know we'll support you. It was so special to me. My niece, I treat her like she's my best friend. My sister gets mad at me because the way I talk to her sometimes. It comes off because I treat her like a boy. I don't mean to. That's the dynamic of our relationship. I just live with that every single day. You got to get done what you have to get done. Sometimes it's going to be snow outside, you got to shovel your car just to get to work. You got to get it done. Whatever you have to do, it's doable. Nothing is put on your plate that you can't handle. I'm a firm believer in that. Q. 10 years younger than you or... SHAKA TONEY: She was probably about 13 something years younger than me at that time. She's a lot younger than me. She's older now, though. She would have been about five. Q. When did the love of the game start for you? SHAKA TONEY: Second year of little league football I fell in love. First year I hated it. I was smart. I've always understood football. I didn't always like it. My first year, I just refused to do things the way the coach wanted me to do it. I didn't understand why. I was one of those kids that always asked questions. My coach never really explained it to me. He told me, I want you to come back and play again next year. I came back and played for the same weight class. He started to teach me, unveil parts of the game to me. I've just been in love ever since, anything that has to do with football. I open my phone, listening to sports podcasts, things talked about around the league. I love football. I could sit all day and just watch football, not even notice. Second year I started to make plays. I think that's when it became more fun for me. At a young age, I definitely, definitely realized this game is the one for me. Q. Is that kind of how you and John Reid started bonding? SHAKA TONEY: John is a Philly guy. Sorry to the Jersey people. John is claimed by all Philadelphians, especially athletes. Me and John actually bonded over video games first, then football. He'll tell you, he likes to watch his football, Penn State games, things about him, people that just play corner. Me, I like to watch the entire sport from the quarterback to the safety to the coach. John is position orientated. Our conversations like the IQ level of it, I learn so much from him from outside of the front seven. Learning the back four helps you, too. You'll see if it's man-to-man, this ball might be coming out early because maybe the guy get beat on the slant route. If I know my corner got a deep third, if it's a goal route, I got a little bit more time, or the quarterback might hit a 1-2-3 go because it's cover you, get my hands up. John has elevated my knowledge of what's going on around me more than what's going on outside the front seven. Q. (No microphone.) SHAKA TONEY: He put to lot into the computer. I purchased everything for the NCAA, pay for it my own money. John is a computer whiz. He helped me learn different things that I can put in there, my mouse, how I can recalibrate it. John is smart, someone you want to have in your corner. Your TV break down, you don't know why, John somebody that come in, take it off, plug in three different things, next thing you know your TV is fine. That's my guy. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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