Penn State defensive tackle Antonio Shelton: 'None of us are losers'

Penn State defensive tackle Antonio Shelton is pragmatic about Thanksgiving.

“For me, Thanksgiving is really just a meal with a home,” Shelton said during a video conference with media on Tuesday. “We have practice on Thanksgiving. You still have a game to prepare for. When I was a freshman, that was kind of weird to me. But you get used to it.”

Still, he allows himself to savor at least one trapping of the holiday.

“The mac and cheese/yams combo is undefeated,” Shelton said. “That’s my go-to.”

Penn State is far from undefeated. Quite the opposite, in fact, at 0-5.

Despite his team’s futility, Shelton remains eager for his next game Saturday at Beaver Stadium against Michigan.

“Every time I have an opportunity to play football or any of us have an opportunity to play football, we go on the field with supreme confidence,” Shelton said. “I say it every week. I say it every single time. If I can go out on the field, I have supreme confidence in my coaches, the scheme and my teammates in what we’re trying to get done.

“I just remind (teammates) that no matter what people are saying or whatever the situation is, there’s always a chance to win. You’ve got a football game to play. That’s what we’re going to do.”

While Penn State is 0-5 for the first time in school history, Shelton, a senior, pledges he will carry on a standard set by more successful teams of years past.

“Leadership is always important, regardless of what you’re record is,” Shelton said. “We’re just trying to lead as best as we can from the way that we were shown by the older guys when we were young.”

Shelton suggests he and his teammates — at least on defense — largely have executed their roles sufficiently. But some of the granular aspect of their jobs have led to considerable deficiencies.

“The things that we’ve been seeing is people are in position to makes plays, as far as the defense goes,” said Shelton, who has seven tackles (three solo, four assisted) and one sack this season. “Guys are in position to make plays. Our fundamentals are good. It’s jut the little minute things like technique. It’s just the real little details. … We’re in position to make plays. We’ve just got to make them. That’s pretty much it.”

“We have to do your job at our position. If you have to make a tackle, you have to make a tackle. If we’re supposed to be sound in our gap, we have to be sound in our gap. We have to stop the run on first, second down, get them to third and long. Pass rush, get the quarterback on the ground and get off the field. That’s it. It’s very simple. We just have to do our job within the framework of the defense, make our plays and get the ball back to the offense.”

Shelton bristles at the notion of there being extra pressure on he and his teammates to finally get win this week.

“It doesn’t matter,” Shelton said. “We could be sitting here at any other type of record. We could be 5-0, 4-1, 3-2. It doesn’t matter what our record is. It’s not pressure. It’s expectations. It’s the expectation to win because none of us are losers. It’s not some miracle breakthrough that’s going to happen. That’s not how football works. It’s a formula. It’s an everyday constant type of thing is how you approach everything. It’s never a breakout, singular moment.

“It’s a culmination of things that line up because you put the work in. And we’ve been putting the work in. We’ve put the work in my entire time since I’ve been here. We’ve just got to find a way to put the pieces all together, execute and get it done.”