Blue White Illustrated

Defensive tackles making impact for Lions T H E 2 0 1 9 S E A S O N that the Lions were rated No. 16 in the FBS against third downs, surrendering conversions only 30.5 percent of the time through seven games. What's more, with an average of only 10.0 points allowed per game, the team was No. 3 in the most im- portant defensive statistic. Credited by Franklin as being one of the team's "most cerebral guys," Toney has had an undeniable influence in helping to produce those numbers up front. He was responsible for 5.5 sacks for 40 yards in losses to go along with 21 tackles through seven games, using his remarkable diag- nostic skills to his advantage. "Once he gets your cadence… now he's able to anticipate and combine his ath- letic ability with his mental approach to the game," Franklin said. "I do think he set the tone [with two early sacks against Purdue]. If you can beat someone like that, it gets in their head and creates some confidence issues. We had a bunch of guys making plays, a bunch of guys doing some really great things, but Shaka's been really good for us, and I think he'll con- tinue to have a big year." Toney, of course, credits the influences in his life for the approach. Going into his senior year at Imhotep, a season in which I owa was hanging in there, refusing to let Penn State pull away as it had done the two previous weeks against Maryland and Purdue. But on 8rst- and-10 from the Hawkeyes' 22-yard line, P.J. Mustipher came crashing through the line of scrim- mage and was on top of Tyler Goodson imme- diately, jarring the ball loose. Linebacker Jan Johnson pounced on it, and sud- denly Penn State had possession at its opponent's 16 in a one-point game. The Lions ended up settling for a 8eld goal on their subsequent posses- sion due to a pair of holding calls and a mystifying replay reversal of an appar- ent touchdown catch, but that third- quarter sequence was the beginning of the end for Iowa in what would turn out to be a 17-12 Penn State victory. That it was instigated by a Nittany Lion defensive tackle was not particu- larly surprising. While the team's de- fensive ends have been in the spotlight lately with their highlight reel sacks, the tackles have been surging, too. Through seven games, Penn State's top four defensive tackles – Mustipher, Robert Windsor, Antonio Shelton and Fred Hansard – had com- bined to make 12.5 of the team's 62 tackles for loss and four of its 28 sacks. They were playing a pivotal role for a team that was allowing only 66.3 rushing yards per game to rank fourth in the Football Bowl Subdivision. "I'm really pleased with the way our defensive tackles are performing right now," coordinator Brent Pry said. "When we lost Kevin Givens maybe a little earlier than we thought or hoped, it was a question mark there, just like at safety. Who's going to step up? We had some good candidates, but there had to be a lot of work, a lot of devel- opment and lots of depth." Givens surprised some people with his decision to forgo his senior season in order to enter the NFL Dra:. His exit created a vacancy opposite Wind- sor, a 12-game starter in 2018, but the Lions have not skipped a beat. Shel- ton, a redshirt junior, started the team's 8rst seven games, and Mustipher has seen plenty of action as his backup. Even though the sopho- more hadn't started any games as of this writing, he was still the fourth- leading tackler among defensive line- men with 18 stops through seven games, including three tackles for loss. Mustipher was one of Penn State's better true freshmen last year, forgo- ing a redshirt and 8nishing with 14 tackles in 12 games. The 6-foot-4, 311-pounder from Owings Mills, Md., went into the o9-season feeling hope- ful about the future – both his and the team's. Now that the 8rst half of the season is in the books, he's been grati- 8ed by the defense's performance. "When you put in the work all o9- season, it's de8nitely nice to have something to show for it," he said. "Coming into the season, we wanted to be the best defense in the country. That's the type of work we did all o9- season together. It wasn't just one unit, it was all the units coming to- gether, making that decision, and then going out and executing during the o9-season. It's de8nitely paid divi- dends so far in the season, and we're just going to continue to grow each week." Pry said the coaching sta9 has cre- ated what it calls the Keystone Award to salute players like Mustipher and Shelton. Because of the nature of their positions, they aren't going to put up big numbers, but they're playing in- dispensible roles in what Penn State is trying to accomplish. "It's a weekly award that's given to a player who maybe doesn't show up in the stats but had an outstanding game and was very important to what we were trying to do," Pry said. "Those guys at the tackle position have earned that recognition from us as a sta9 mul- tiple times this year." –MATT HERB MUSTIPHER

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