'Their music is our music': How Michigan plans to embrace environment at Penn State
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — This weekend’s game against Michigan isn’t Penn State’s ‘white out’ game, but it should be a raucous atmosphere for the noon kick inside Beaver Stadium for the program’s ‘helmet stripe game’ (a way around having two white-outs?).
The Wolverines have lost the last two meetings in Happy Valley, both night games, but came out on top in 2015 in what was a 3:30 kick. Michigan was blown out in 2017, 42-13, and lost a close one in 2019, 28-21.
Beaver Stadium has a capacity of 106,572 and is the second-largest venue in college football, behind only Michigan Stadium. The fans are known as some of the loudest in the sport. The argument can be made that they’re loud because they have good football to play for, and due to the size of the stadium, but there’s no doubt the give the Nittany Lions an extra boost. Either way, Penn State has won 11 of its last 12 home games with full-capacity crowds.
“It’s a great venue. Why? They’ve got a great fan base that’s really into it,” Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “That’s like a lot of football environments across the country, it’s really good.”
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The Wolverines are 2-1 on the road this season, with wins at Wisconsin and Nebraska and a loss at Michigan State. Michigan has taken the approach of using the opponent’s energy for their own gain.
“I’d say don’t fight against it, you go with it,” Harbaugh said. “Enjoy that stage, enjoy that opportunity. Personally, I like to pretend they’re cheering for me when I was a player. I think I see our players taking that same mindset. Their music is our music. People that love football — can’t fault them for that. Just kind of go with it.”
“One thing that I think has changed this year for us is, using the opponent’s crowd for us,” redshirt sophomore defensive end Taylor Upshaw said. “We like that. I know I like it, the defensive coaches like it, and it’s fun for us. It’s not like a scary thing. We want to be able to prove that we can get big wins on the road, so that’s our mentality.”
That means when the Nittany Lions play their signature ‘Zombie Nation’ song, the Wolverines will feed off of it, much like they did when Wisconsin played ‘Jump Around’ or Nebraska turned on ‘Thunderstruck.’
“It’s a standard thing in football when you’re going on the road for the offense, during practice, to play music,” explained redshirt junior defensive tackle Donovan Jeter. “And we just so happen to play peoples’ music during practice, so when it’s time to do whatever their little ritual is, it gets us going, too.
“I wouldn’t say we put more of an emphasis of it, but I think this year, we understood that to get where we want to get to, we’ve got to win road games. We have some big road games coming up and throughout the year, and we know we have to take care of business on the road.”
“You’ve seen us, we’re jumping to other peoples’ songs,” Upshaw added. “Just using the crowd’s energy. They’re using their energy on us to lose, so we’re going to use their energy — flip it — and use it for us to win. But it’s fun. It’s fun being able to compete in front of another team’s home.”
While the environment has a factor, Michigan says it’s more about the execution on the field rather than the craziness in the stands.
“When it’s all said and done, there are only 11 players on each side that are out there on the field that can affect the game, and the officials,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Those are the only people that are out there on the field that play-after-play can affect the down.
“A really loud stadium — everybody knows that — so execution has to be high,” Jeter added. “We’re both really talented teams and have big guys that match up with each other, so it’s really just about how we can consistently execute.”
The two teams will kick off at noon on Saturday. At 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten, Michigan has a shot at making the Big Ten championship game and College Football Playoff, but has lost its one-game buffer and, in all likelihood, must win out to achieve those goals.
