How Penn State DT PJ Mustipher plans to rebound from a leg injury that ended his 2021 season
PJ Mustipher calmly reflected on the play he vividly remembers from the 2021 season. He was engaged with Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum when he tried to get off the block and make a play. Mustipher cut back to match the running back toward him, but he was already engaged in a double team and the weight of an Iowa lineman was suddenly on his leg — which was firmly planted into the ground.
The Penn State defensive tackle had some bad luck, but still lamented what he could have done to avoid getting hurt.
“It was a tough play,” Mustipher said at Big Ten Media Days. “I mean, to be honest with you, if I’m better technically sound there, I’m probably not hurt. But that’s the reality of the situation. Just gotta learn from it, move on from it, and put it in the past.”
Just under 10 months after he suffered the unspecified leg injury, Mustipher is ready to return at full strength to lead the Penn State defensive line.
The senior defensive tackle made the decision to return for another season with the Nittany Lions and plans to take advantage of his final year of eligibility. But to get to that point, he — and the team — first had to recover.
Adapting to the loss of leaders
The injury he suffered affected the entire program and put the Nittany Lions in a bad place. They were a top-5 team in the country but then his injury and redshirt senior starting quarterback Sean Clifford’s injury derailed the season. The run defense didn’t look quite the same and neither did the offense.
Mustipher said the duo’s leadership impacted the team and made the game even more of a turning point.
“When you have two players get hurt it’s really difficult,” he said. “But when you have two guys who are leaders get hurt, it makes it that much more difficult. ... This game is a lot about the mental aspect and when you look around the locker room right before you go out and take the field, and you don’t have the two people that have been leading the entire time, it makes it hard.”
Losing leaders is hard, but it’s not as if they’re gone from the program. Clifford took the field two weeks later and played most of the rest of the season, and Mustipher was still around the team despite his season-ending injury.
The defensive tackle did his best to maintain his role as a leader, attempting to guide his younger teammates as they navigated murky waters with the walls caving in on the season.
Eventually, Mustipher knew he wasn’t helping as much as he wanted because he wasn’t on the field. It was then that he decided to take a step back.
“During the season last year there were times I didn’t even want to go out to practice when I was hurt,” he said. “I didn’t even want to be out there. There were times I had to walk back in the locker room and just be like, ‘It doesn’t matter that I’m out there. I’m not playing, ain’t nobody gonna be listening to me while I’m on the sidelines.’ I have to understand that even though I’m not out there, I’m still a leader and guys still look up to me and respect me and what I say and what I do. It doesn’t matter if I’m out there or not, I gotta continue to be me.”
Working his way back from injury
While he took a step away from an involved leadership role, he continued rehabbing and working his way back onto the field.
There were dark times during the process, Mustipher admitted, like in February and March when he wondered why he wasn’t seeing as much progress as he wanted to. Those down times still occur, but he’s much better prepared to deal with them now than he was earlier on.
Despite the ups and downs, Penn State head coach James Franklin glowed about how his senior leader bounced back from his injury.
Mustipher frequently mentioned his celebratory meal at Big Ten Media Days — a steak, two lobster tails and plenty of mashed potatoes — after he finished his conditioning test. Franklin made jokes about the meal, but made clear how impressed he was.
“He’s a special guy,” Franklin said. “I would hire him. When he gets done playing I’d hire him to do a lot of different things depending on what he wants to do. ... A lot of guys that I’ve seen, when they have a significant injury, they may use that as a reason to have a modified conditioning test.
“And here’s a guy that said, ‘OK, I know there’s some things that I need to accomplish both physically and mentally to check all the boxes to be prepared against Purdue. And one of them is pass the conditioning test that I passed as a freshman at 285 pounds that now I’m passing as a fifth year senior at 320 pounds before the steak and the lobster.’ And he does it and takes great pride in it and has fun with it.”
Ready to ‘get back to winning’
Part of the help he received on his road to recovery came from someone within his own position group. Redshirt junior defensive end Adisa Isaac suffered his own severe injury — tearing his Achilles last offseason — and missed the entire 2021 season.
He’s gone through the recovery process for that type of potentially catastrophic injury and watching him do it. At first it was about asking Isaac questions, then it became motivational for Mustipher in his own process.
“I relied on him,” he said. “I relied on all those guys. I was listening to anybody who has ever been hurt and came back. I love doing that because it just gives me motivation. ... Just seeing that each and every day, it means a lot more than just hearing it from somebody else you don’t even know. Because you get to see it. You get to see it each and every day. We were doing rehab together, we were in the room together. It’s impactful.”
Now in his final year, Mustipher is ready. He plans to get the program back on the track it was on before he went down with the injury that coincided with its downfall.
While he’s ready to lay it all on the line because it’s his last opportunity in college, it’s about much more than him.
“I’m ready to be out there with those guys again and get back to winning,” Mustipher said. “That’s what means the most to me. That’s why I came back.”
