James Franklin addresses the emotions of playing in a White Out game

College football is a sport built on the back of its traditions. For the Penn State Nittany Lions, there is no greater tradition than the White Out game. Now, head coach James Franklin is excited to welcome the Oregon Ducks to Happy Valley for this season’s edition of the White Out.

With a listed capacity of 106,572 and a record attendance of 111,030 at Beaver Stadium, it’s easy to see how this could quickly become an emotional game for the Nittany Lions. Despite that, when addressing the game, Franklin shared that he doesn’t need to do anything to get them to focus. This is something Penn State is used to.

“I think that happens naturally,” James Franklin said. “I don’t think I need to tell them. Right? They’ve been hearing it all offseason. They’ve been hearing it when they walk around campus, when they’re getting the requests for tickets. I love, like I get these text messages. ‘Hey, how we doing?’ I haven’t talked to you in I don’t know how long, and you are talking about all these other topics. I’m like, get to the point. The answer is ‘No.’ You’ve waited to the last minute to request tickets. What are we talking about?”

Penn State played its first White Out game in 2004, back when Joe Paterno was still the head coach. It quickly became a tradition for the Nittany Lions and is usually held against their marquee opponent coming into Happy Valley. In that time, the Nittany Lions have gone 13-8 in these games, and they’re 8-3 under James Franklin with six straight wins. That includes two wins last season, with the program adding an extra White Out for the College Football Playoff.

“So, I don’t think it’s anything that I need to address with them. It is a special deal and we’re fortunate and honored to coach in it and to play in it,” Franklin said. “But I don’t think it’s something that needs to be addressed.  They’ve all — almost all of them were there as recruits. They’ve all — the ones that weren’t there as recruits have now played in it.”

This year’s White Out game is going to be unique in and of itself, though. Penn State comes in ranked third in the AP Poll, but was relatively untested in non-conference play. Oregon, meanwhile, is sixth in the AP Poll, having already added multiple Power Four wins. Neither has played a particularly close game yet. That also, notably, makes this the highest combined ranking for the two teams entering the White Out.

“So, I’ll take my eight seconds when we walk out of the tunnel and take it all in and feel the energy,” Franklin said. “And then once you kind of run on the field, you’re kind of locked in and focused on the opponent and the challenge. But I don’t think it’s something that needs to really be addressed.”

Penn State will be ready. It’s hard to imagine Oregon won’t be ready for the moment too. The fans will be ready for it all when White Out conditions are expected for 7:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, September 27th.

Dan Lanning admits Oregon is preparing for Penn State crowd by playing Mo Bamba in practice

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning knows his team needs to be prepared for an amount of crowd noise that is almost impossible to replicate. To fight that, he’s turned to blasting the song ‘Mo Bamba’ in practice.

“It’ll play a couple times,” Lanning said. “We’ll do everything we can to be prepared for that environment for sure. I don’t love that song.”

‘Mo Bamba’ is a song that Oregon can certainly expect to hear. Penn State has been playing the song since 2019. Since then, it’s consistently helped create communication issues.