Asking Princeton Toki if he plays football at UC Davis is a silly question. All it does is give the senior permission to respond with a silly answer. Toki is 5-foot-11 and weighs 375 pounds, so the answer should be a dead giveaway. He is not going to give that answer away, however. That would be silly.
“I tell them I play tennis or that I’m on the golf team,” quipped Toki, who would much rather have a ukulele in his hands than a racket or putter. The nose tackle will gladly battle two of three offensive linemen than face a third-set tiebreaker on the tennis court or try to chip out of a greenside bunker.
Football is his game and nose tackle suits his selfless personality. Toki does not play for accolades or all-conference awards. He does not care how many tackles he has as long as the defense does its job and the team wins. A request this week for a phone interview came as a complete surprise.
That was not Toki’s first surprise in his final season with the Aggies. The Salesian Prep (Richmond) graduate was voted by his teammates to be one of four team captains. Running back Lan Larison, quarterback Miles Hastings and safety Rex Connors were obvious selections. Toki was hardly that.
Toki is the shortest captain and has at least 160 pounds on any of the other three. The 21-year-old has fewer tackles (19) in his career than linebacker David Meyer has in three games this season (34). Toki’s start in the Aug. 31 opener at Cal was his first in two years and just the third of his career.
Larison, Hastings and Connors are depicted on banners hanging in UC Davis Health Stadium. They are the faces of the program and the headline grabbers. Toki is burly, woolly and probably not fond of mirrors. His idea of formal attire is a traditional Tongan tupenu, dress shirt, tie and suspenders.
That is exactly what Toki wore last October when his teammates wore suits for “a business trip” to Weber State. The Wildcats have been a thorn in the Aggies’ side, winning six consecutive meetings from 2015 to 2021. UC Davis has won two of the past three games, including a 17-16 victory last year.
Weber State was one of five teams to not have a rushing touchdown against UC Davis in 2023. The Aggies led the Big Sky Conference in fewest rushing touchdowns allowed last season with 10. Toki had a total of two tackles in those five games, but statistics do not begin to measure his value to the defense.
His job is to strike enough fear in the opposing offense that two and sometimes three linemen are assigned to keep him out of the backfield. By holding his ground against double and triple teams, Toki ensures at least one of the other 10 defensive players will be unblocked and can stop any play.
“I don’t care if I get double-teamed on every single play. I’ll do that with no hesitation,” Toki said. “I know what my job is. I’ll do everything I can for my guys. I want to be a team player on defense.”
Toki’s leadership is evident in how he sets the standard for his young teammates. Rather than lead by example, which he does without trying to do so, Toki has no problem pulling an underclassman aside and telling that player what it will take to be an Aggie and become a resident of “Shredville.”
“It’s helping with the younger guys. It’s letting them know the level they need to be at. They have to be locked in and get better every day. They can’t waste this opportunity,” said Toki, who endured his share of growing pains after joining the Aggies in 2020 and could have used such sage advice.
Saturday’s home game against Utah Tech will be the last dress rehearsal for the Aggies before they host Idaho in their Big Sky opener next week. The Trailblazers are 0-3 with losses to two Big Sky teams, Montana State and Northern Arizona. UC Davis (2-1) will host Montana State on Nov 16.
Playing Utah Tech will give the 13th-ranked Aggies an idea of how they will measure against No. 3 Montana State, which is 8-0 against UC Davis. Toki will bring the ruler Saturday night.
