Penn State coach James Franklin is expecting Saturday’s White Out game against Oregon at Beaver Stadium to be crazy, even by White Out standards.
Although the White Out happens every year, the No. 6 team in the country being Penn State’s opponent for the occasion hardly ever happens.
Franklin knows this will be unique, and issued a challenge to Penn State fans to make this “an environment like nobody has ever seen.”
WHAT JAMES SAID
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: James Franklin
“We need this place rocking. We need to have a distinct home-field advantage. We always do. But I’m expecting this to be an environment like nobody has ever seen. Urban Meyer always has discussions and debates on what’s the hardest place to play in college football. I think he always says it’s between the Penn State White Out and LSU at night. So we want to make it obvious to everybody what’s the most difficult environment to play in all of sports, not just college football, in all of sports, let alone college football.”
STAND UP
Penn State announced their second-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history with 110,830.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.One thing Franklin wants from Penn State fans is for them to always be standing.
During the average game, most fans are sitting unless something big is going on.
For Franklin, this is the type of game where every play will be a big one.
“I know a good portion of our fans like to sit down except for third down and red zones and what they consider critical times of the game,” he said. “But I’m challenging everybody. This is a four-quarter, one play at a time, first, second down, third down. Punts, kickoff coverage, that we need to be on our feet, screaming, a collective battle cry in the stadium. So, we’re going to need everybody’s help.”
CiracaSports has PSU as a three-point favorite, which is about as close as it gets, especially if you believe the adage that “the home team is given three points.” That’s no surprise considering the stakes. After all, these are the same two teams that played for the Big Ten Championship last December, and although Oregon has lost key players such as Dillon Gabriel and Tez Johnson, the Ducks are still loaded enough to be near the top five. Penn State returns most of its key players from last year’s team, which ended up coming within a drive of playing for the national championship game.
So, yeah, this is a big one.
Penn State-Oregon is scheduled to begin at 7:30 on NBC.
