Penn State coach James Franklin raised more than a few eyebrows during his postgame presser against Kent State in hyping up the next week’s game against Illinois.
It didn’t take long for the Penn State boss him to start hyping the Illinois game Beaver Stadium, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary.
The words he said, though, were headline worthy.
“I’m calling for White Out… energy,” Franklin said. “Everybody got me? That could be all your headlines. I’m writing your headlines. I’m the editor – White Out energy. So that’s going to be big next week. We need this place rocking, but we’re going to enjoy this for a couple hours, and then, you know, grade film. And then get going on our next opponent.”
Penn State has its annual White Out game set for Nov. 9 against Washington, and the theme for this coming Saturday’s game is the Stripe Out.
PSU is only allowed to market one official White Out per season due to interference from the NHL.
But there’s no rule against fans wearing white, and it certainly appears that’s what Franklin wants PSU’s fan base to do.
Since Franklin’s postgame comments Saturday, Penn State has ran with the “White Out Energy” theme, and at his Monday presser, Franklin showed up wearing a white sweatshirt.
Coincidence? Probably not.
Had Penn State picked Illinois as its White Out opponent back in the summer, fans may not have been to happy. But since Illinois is off to a hot start— 4-0 and ranked No. 19– and it is officially a night game set for 7:30, Penn State fans are much more receptive to wearing white. We’ll see if they do so Saturday night.
