Penn State defensive tackle Siale Taupaki has built his college career around something bigger than football, and he made that clear again Tuesday in Beaver Stadium.
After his media session, Taupaki walked through the room shaking hands with reporters, a small gesture that drew a comment from one media member who said they didn’t remember seeing a player do that before. Taupaki just smiled and gave the credit to his family.
“Shout out to my pops,” Taupaki said with a smile on his face.
That kind of response fits Taupaki’s story. He is in his seventh year of college football, but his path has never been ordinary.
He grew up in California in a crowded house with nearly two dozen people, learned to work early, and picked up that mindset by watching his parents. Now, with NIL changing what college athletes can do, he’s using his platform to help them in ways he never could have imagined.
“My parents are still struggling,” Taupaki said Tuesday afternoon. “I’m broke. So while everybody else is still trying to buy their next pendant or buy their next car, I’m really just trying to fill in all the holes that I have back at home.”
That means taking care of bills, including the internet, so his family can watch him play. And when they do, Taupaki said they aren’t just watching a football player. They’re watching their son.
His parents are still relatively new to the sport, and that makes the postgame conversations matter even more. Taupaki said they have not attended many of his games because they don’t like loud noises, but he still gets to walk them through what happened afterward. Even after losses, he said his father helps bring him back to center.
“Say we lose a game, I still win in my heart, because I get to tell it back to my dad,” Taupaki said in February. “And yes, we’re on the phone - but he’s imagining.
And just hearing his input, just keep showing up, just keep working. That right there just gives me another reason why.
Like, I won. We might not have won at a football game or whatever, but in general, in life, I won.”
Taupaki’s upbringing started long before football entered the picture. He said he began helping his parents when he was 6 or 7, after they immigrated to the United States from Tonga.
His father is a retired construction worker, and his mother works as a caregiver at a senior home. Work has always been the family language.
That’s why Taupaki said he feels such a responsibility to make the most of every chance he gets.
“Understanding how far I came, I really try to take advantage and take full advantage in every opportunity that I can with the platform, because I come from nothing,” Taupaki said. “When I go home, I’m not even a football player.
I’m still a son. So everything that I got to do beforehand and after, I got to do it based off my parents.
That football stuff is out the door. The opportunity that I’ve gotten with the NIL era and the great coaching staff and all that, I’m thankful for that.
But at the end of the day, I still got stuff to do as a son. So to play my role as that, I’m forever grateful.”
One goal he set after arriving at Penn State was getting his parents to State College so they could see him play in person. Taupaki said in February that he hoped to bring them across the country, but he also noted how difficult that would be because of their age and the travel from California, where they now live.
If they do make it, they’ll get to watch their son not just as a player, but as a leader. Taupaki and fellow defensive tackle Keanu Williams have become central figures in the Penn State defensive tackle room, and both arrived with a head start after playing under defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe at UCLA. Malloe said in February that the two were already setting the tone.
“They’re already teaching,” Malloe said. “They came in right away - and those guys know and they played for me - they’re running drills.”
For now, Taupaki keeps doing what he’s been doing: leading the room, helping his family and making sure the people back home can feel every step of the journey. And maybe soon, one of those phone calls will happen with his father sitting inside Beaver Stadium, feeling the whole thing for himself.
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