Entering the 2016 season, Navy senior slot back Toneo Gulley had scarcely started a game, had touched the football a total of 37 times in three years and had yet to gain 300 career yards from scrimmage. And yet, Gulley's teammates and coaches were not the least bit surprised when, following last year's 11-2 finish, his teammates voted him as a co-captain heading into his final season. In hindsight, Gulley stuck out as an obvious pick for one of the highest honors a Navy player can achieve. Forget the statistics - which, upon closer inspection, hold up just fine - and look closer at the substance that defines the 5-feet-9, 196-pound native of Akron, Ohio, who graduated from Tremper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Since the day he reported in 2012 to the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, Rhode Island, the Mids say Gulley has been a bundle of boisterous energy and easy going charisma, a natural, outgoing leader in the locker room and a picture of toughness, unselfishness and consistency between the lines.
Gulley's presence is a huge component on this 2016 squad. As a first-time starter at slot back, he lacks the sheer, breakaway speed of fellow senior starter Dishan Romine, but no one in the Navy backfield blocks with more skill and enthusiasm than Gulley. He also remains a key on special teams on the kickoff coverage and return units, where Gulley earned the first of three varsity letters as a plebe. And there is no doubt about his value as one of the voices of the Mids, who appreciate Gulley's everyday contribution at picking up his teammates as well as bringing them back to earth. "Toneo is the spark in our locker room. He's loud and uplifting. He always gets us going," says senior fullback Shawn White, who went through NAPS with Gulley and counts him as his first friend there. "But the hardest type of leadership is peer leadership," White adds. "Telling your brother to fix something he's doing wrong is not an easy task. Toneo is not afraid of doing that, never has been. We're here to work hard, have fun and do things the right way, and he truly understands that. It's a big reason why we voted him team captain." "Toneo has been vocal leader ever since he got here. As a young player, he was hyping everyone up before a game," Romine adds. "He sets a very aggressive tempo and he plays that way. If you were to mic him up on the field, you'd hear all kinds of sounds and grunts coming from him. We became very close during our freshman camp, and there's been a good-natured but very competitive edge between us ever since."
Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo likes to point out the dynamics of the pecking order among the Mids, which is to say it is not a hierarchy in the traditional sense. Any player is free to express himself, regardless of class, as long as that player backs up the talk with total commitment to the program on a daily basis. That, in essence, is Gulley. "There is nothing phony about Toneo. People have always gravitated to him," Niumatalolo says. "He had an infectious personality that we saw when he was in high school, and he's been very passionate and vocal since he got here. He loves his teammates and he's going to push them every day, and he plays the same way. He's one of the hardest-working, toughest guys on this team."
Gulley says he feels a deep sense of accomplishment at Navy. Being able to stick on the active roster throughout his plebe year, when he contributed eight special teams tackles while trailing on the slot back depth chart, constituted a huge start. He then became more of an option in the Navy offense over his next two seasons with a position group that has remained deep throughout Niumatalolo's nine years as head coach.
In 2014, Gulley appeared in all 13 games, averaged seven yards on 11 carries and rushed for his first touchdown. Last season, Gulley broke out as more of a featured weapon by averaging 15.8 yards on 12 carries, four of which resulted in scores, highlighted by a 70-yard touchdown run on his only carry in a 44-21 rout at Tulsa.
Clearly, the pride shows when Gulley reflects on his growth as a blocker and when he thinks back to the day last winter when he found out his teammates had elevated him to coveted status. "I never voiced it, but being a captain was something I wanted going into NAPS," recalled Gulley, who was a co-captain in his one season in Rhode Island. "To have a group of guys like this think that highly of you is awesome and humbling. I hope people say that I'm a family guy who cares about the guy to my left and my right, that I've been that brother," he adds. "I've always tried to look out for people. I don't care what time it is. If you've got a problem, you can come and talk to me about it. If I can't help you, I'll find somebody who can."
The demands at the slot back position play ideally into Gulley's mindset. Over the past two seasons, he has helped spring ball carriers regularly while gaining appreciation for the art of cut-blocking, a skill he had no concept of while starring at Tremper High for his final two seasons. He smiled as he recalled his favorite day so far as a blocker at Navy. If you watch clips of last year's 45-21 blowout of East Carolina at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, you'll see back-to-back, first-quarter runs by Romine that gain first downs. Each time, Gulley gains excellent leverage and deposits a Pirates defender on his back with a textbook block that helps Romine gain a nice chunk of yardage.
"The first thing I learned here was how special teams is the way you get on the bus," Gulley says. "It's kind of a tough pill to swallow at first, but that's how you start to buy into this brotherhood. I wanted to come in and start, but [playing on special teams] is how I earned the right to be on the team. Anything you can do to help the team succeed is what it's about. The things I cared about in high school - wanting to score this many touchdowns or rush for that many yards - that all goes out the window," he adds. "Every [slot back] here is a recruited running back, but you learn pretty quickly that the most important part of the A-back's job is blocking. I just get so pumped up about it. I'd actually rather block [than run] now. I want people to emulate that, or do it even better."
Lamoyne Hawley, who formerly coached running backs at Tremper High, recalled Gulley as an uncommonly disciplined, driven player who arrived in Kenosha late in his sophomore year after moving from his hometown of Akron - and made an immediate impact. "Toneo's motor stood out then just like it does now when I watch him play on TV," says Hawley, who admired Gulley's aggressive tackling of academic chores, as well as his ability to connect instantly with teammates. Gulley went on to be active in student government and also attained National Honor Society membership.
"He had this way of lighting up a room and just blending in at the same time," Hawley adds. "Not only did he not give you the impression that he was a superstar, which he was, he was genuinely eager to learn about his teammates. He quickly became part of us. I mean, he was a friend to everybody."
Shellaree Twitty, Gulley's mother - he is one of six children she had with her ex-husband, Anthony Gulley - says Toneo possessed that same, caring, inclusive quality from a young age. "All of my kids are unique. Toneo is in the middle [by age], but he's the father to everyone," she says. "He has a lot of wisdom for a young man. He's got this sweet, soft spirit. He's going to listen to you and give you his feedback, always with a positive word to say. He was born with this old soul."
Toneo says his mother has exerted a huge influence on his life, and that has been especially clear since Shellaree decided to make a sudden career change in 2001 at the age of 35.
After spending 18 years as a hair stylist, she decided to enlist in the U.S. Navy. She went from a reservist to active duty in 2003, became a hospital corpsman, a drill instructor and a chief petty officer. Twitty is now an operations support officer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
During Toneo's sophomore year at Garfield High In Akron, where his older brother, Prince-Tyson Gulley, starred before going on to play running back at Syracuse, his mother was transferred to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago. She chose to relocate the family across the nearby Wisconsin border in Kenosha.
By his junior year Gulley was drawing heavy recruiting interest from Mid-American Conference schools that included scholarship offers from Northern Illinois and Toledo. Gulley initially verbally committed to Akron, but Navy soon entered the picture and Toneo found himself contemplating an unexpected opportunity.
"My mom told me I needed to grow up and choose my path," Gulley said. "I had seen what she had experienced and how much fun she was having in the Navy and what it did for my family. I could go to this great school for free and have a great career. It was too good to pass up."
So Gulley chose a memorable way to declare his intentions. Around Halloween during his senior year at Tremper High, after his mother arrived at home following a charity event she had attended, Toneo greeted her while wearing her Navy uniform. "I said, 'I hope you didn't go out [in public] in my uniform. It has my name on it! Why are you wearing it?" she recalls asking her son. "And he said, 'Mom, I just committed to Navy.'"
"She just broke down and cried, she was so happy," Gulley recalls. "Then I asked her if she was going to be ready to salute me in about five years." That emotional scene will play out in May on Graduation Day. Before then, Gulley has much work to do. Among his tasks will be to help the Mids continue their outstanding run of success on the football field, in his final season of a career that began on the Pop Warner fields of Akron at age seven.
"That really hit me on the plane ride back from the [American Athletic Conference] media day," Gulley says. "I was just sitting there, listening to music thinking, wow, this is my last preseason, my last everything [as a football player]. "I learned so much here by watching the older guys. I learned to take this job very seriously. Now, I have to pass that on to the younger guys. I have to make the most of this."
