Penn State defensive tackle Antonio Shelton on facing Ohio State: 'It's not a rivalry'

When Penn State faces Ohio State in football, it’s usually a pretty big affair.

That won’t be any different when the schools meet at Beaver Stadium on Saturday.

But its not a rivalry.

At least not to Penn State defensive tackle Antonio Shelton.

“First of all, it’s not a rivalry,” Shelton said via video conference on Wednesday. “We’re not Michigan. People are trying to make this something — I don’t want to say bigger than it is — we’re a good team, they’re a good team as well. So I can understand how people would try to make it something like that. And by me saying it’s not a rivalry, that’s not me downplaying our opponent or disrespecting Ohio State in any way because I’m not the type of person to downplay my opponent. That’s not smart.

“But I don’t necessarily think that is a rivalry. This is two good football teams who are playing each other. That’s it. They have great players. We have great players. It’s great coaches on both sides. Both programs are very historic, very storied programs. It’s just two good football teams who get to play each other on Saturday.”

Even as a native of Columbus, Ohio, a game against Ohio State doesn’t seem to carry any extra value for Shelton.

“Yeah, I’m from Columbus,” Shelton said. “And that’s fine. But what I’m not going to do is I’m not going to make this game about me. I’m not the only guy from Columbus on the team or the only guy from Ohio on the team. So I don’t ever want to make this about me. That’s fine. It’s really not that deep to me. This is where I’m at. Penn State. This is where God put me. This is where I’m supposed to be.

“I don’t have any personal vendetta or personal anger to anybody at that university. My best friend plays on that team. I don’t get into personal things like that. The last time I made that mistake, I didn’t really like the result of things. It’s a football game. I’m going to treat it how I treat every other football game. I’m going to prepare to the best of my ability. Play within the framework of the defense that (defensive coordinator Brent Pry) and our defensive staff draw up. And that’s it.”

Shelton and his defensive teammate seem to realize the challenge ahead of him.

“They’re very well coached,” Shelton said. “They have playmakers all over the place. Obviously, everybody knows the capabilities that (quarterback Justin Fields) has. Things that he can do with the ball as well as what he can do with his legs. They always have very good wide receivers.

“The position that impacts me the most are their offensive (linemen). They’re a very experienced group, a very old group. They’re very well coached in what they do, very good techniques. They’re a very well put together offense. They don’t make too many mistakes. It should definitely be fun to prepare to play them and to play them on Saturday.”

Just getting on the field — albeit in a 36-35 overtime road loss to Indiana last Saturday — was fun for Shelton, who recorded two tackles in that season-opening contest.

“It was definitely nice to play football again against an opponent not just your teammates,” Shelton said. “It was cool. It was nice to see the offseason training and everything that everybody did and the offseason studies and everybody’s improvement and people’s improvement on our units — offenses, defense, special teams — seeing those is definitely nice. We’ve got just a couple of things to clean up here and there. We made those corrections already. We’ve just got to keep moving forward.”