BIG. There is no other way to describe the White Out in Beaver Stadium on Saturday, when third-ranked Penn State faces BIG Ten Conference foe sixth-ranked Oregon at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.
How BIG? This BIG…
BIG RANKINGS: Penn State is No. 2 in this week’s Coaches poll and No. 3 in The Associated Press poll. Oregon is No. 5 in the Coaches poll and No. 6 in the AP poll.
BIG SHOWDOWN OF AP TOP-6 RANKED TEAMS IN THE FRANKLIN ERA. This is the sixth such match-up in James Franklin’s tenure at Penn State; he is 0-5 in those games:
2017 @Ohio — No. 6 Ohio State 39, No. 2 PSU 38
2021 @Iowa — No. 3 Iowa 23, No. 4 PSU 20
2024 @PSU — No. 4 Ohio State 20, No. 3 PSU 13
2024 B10 title — No. 1 Oregon 45, No. 3 PSU 37
2024 CFP/Orange — No. 5 Notre Dame 27, No. 4 PSU 24
BIG WHITEOUT: Penn State holds an 11-6 record when the full stadium wears white. Saturday’s matchup will mark just the second White Out with both teams ranked among the AP Top 10. The other? The 2018 game between No. 9 Penn State and No. 4 Ohio State, won 27-26 by the Buckeyes — which spawned James Franklin’s “good, great, elite” soliloquy after a failed late-game fourth-and-5 call.
BIG CHANCE TO CLAIM ELITE STATUS. Franklin was ready to do this last year, when the Nittany Lions were on the cusp of beating Ohio State. But didn’t. Franklin had a speech all teed up…if the Nittany Lions had won. If they beat Oregon on Saturday, expect a memorable post-game presser from CJF. What he said post-Ohio State in 2024: “There’s a lot of things that I had planned on saying when I came in here today. But they are not appropriate to say right now. So, I will hold them for another time.”
BIG ESPN COLLEGE GAMEDAY PRESENCE. 9 a.m. to noon on the Old Main on Saturday. Here are my picks for the celebrity guest picker.
BIG TEST FOR THE TEMPORARY WEST SIDE UPPER DECK BLEACHERS IN BEAVER STADIUM.
BIG PRICES. On Tuesday evening, the cheapest ticket for the White Out I could find was $402.22 on Ticketmaster and $430 on StubHub.
BIG GAME, SAYS FRANKLIN, who in Monday’s press conference in Beaver Stadium, abandoned his all-games-are-equal mantra, by saying, “Tremendous challenge. Tremendous opportunity.” Other BIG game nuggets:
• “This is a four-quarter, one-play-at-a-time, first down, second down, third down, fourth 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.”
• “…On the defensive side of the ball, we’ve been working hard to create depth. This isn’t one of those types of games. We need our best players playing as many reps as we possibly can.”
• “It is a special deal and we’re fortunate and honored to coach in it and play in it.”
BIG LITTLE NUANCED TROLL. In Franklin’s opening scripted comments in Monday’s presser, he said, “Got a tremendous amount of respect for what [Oregon coach Dan Lanning] has been able to do for the Oregon football program and the university as a whole. It’s been impressive to actually watch what they have been able to do in a short period of time, number of different coaches, and with tremendous support.”
The “number of different coaches” at Oregon since 2013 (Franklin came to PSU in 2014):
Mark Helfrich (2013-16), 37-16, .698
Willie Taggart (2017), 7-5, .583
Mario Cristobal (2017-21), 35-13, .729
Bryan McClendon (2021), 0-1, .000
Dan Lanning (2022-25), 39-6, .807
About that “tremendous support” — a good amount which comes from Oregon alum, Nike founder and mega-billionaire Phil Knight — let’s borrow the words of newly-fired Mike Gundy, who coached with Franklin at Maryland. In the days before his Oklahoma State team lost 69-3 to Oregon on Sept. 6, Gundy said: “We spent around $7 million over the last three years, and I think Oregon spent close to $40 [million] last year alone. That was just one year. Now, I might be off a few million. What I’m saying is they’re spending a lot of money. There are some schools that are doing that.”
BIG BREAK BEFORE THE START OF OREGON’S CLASSES. The University of Oregon is on the quarter system and has not yet started fall classes in Eugene. They begin the Monday after the White Out. That means the Ducks have gone through summer camp and the first four games of the season with zero worries or time spent on academics. Nil. (But, lots of NIL.) By kickoff Saturday, Penn State will have already completed five weeks of classes into the fall semester.
BIG BREAK SINCE PENN STATE’S LAST GAME. In the lead-up to the game, Penn State has had a lot of time for (over)thinking, hype and outside noise:
340.5 hours — Time from kickoff against Nevada in Penn State’s season-opener on Aug. 30 to the final whistle of the Villanova game on Sept. 13.
336.5 hours — Time from the final whistle of the Villanova game to the kickoff against Oregon this Saturday night.
BIG NBC BROADCAST. “The Stuff Somers Says with Steve” podcast is always a good listen, but especially insightful this week was their interview with Charlie Dammeyer, who is the director of NBC’s Big Ten Saturday Night game broadcast. Dammeyer said that NBC will up its camera count from 10 to 14, plus add pylon cameras and an additional super-slow component, to cover the BIG game.
In addition to its usual Skycam, Dammeyer says NBC is adding a “two-point system that will be on the Penn State sideline for 130 yards or so, about 10 to 15 rows deep in the crowd to provide that sideline access… that is unique to us. Even at NBC, we’ve never done anything like that in our college football coverage…this will be the highest complement in terms of technical facilities this season for us.”
BIG LEGENDARY PENN STATE QUARTERBACKS. Todd Blackledge, QB of the 1982 national champion Nittany Lions, will be calling the game for NBC with Noah Eagle. Also on hand, as part of the NBC pre-game show, will be another iconic former PSU quarterback — Michael Robinson, who led Penn State to an 11-1 record and a No. 3 final ranking in 2005.
BIG NO. 409 GAME IN BEAVER STADIUM HISTORY. Penn State has played 408 games at Beaver Stadium, since it opened in 1960, and is 326-82 (.799). To state the obvious, Joe Paterno won 409 games at Penn State.
BIG CHANCE FOR FRANKLIN TO BE NO. 2 IN ALLTIME WINS BY A PENN STATE FOOTBALL HEAD COACH. Paterno is No. 1 at 409-136-3 (.749), while Franklin and the late Rip Engle both have 104 victories. Franklin is 104-42 (.712), while Engle, who coached from 1950-65, was 140-48-4 (.679).
BIG CHANCE TO DEBUNK THE “BIG GAME JAMES” MONIKER. Franklin’s record at Penn State vs. top teams is not good. Here is the rundown, according to statistics compiled by the highly-regarded Ralph Russo of The Athletic, who was the lead college football writer for The Associated Press for 20 years. Here is Franklin’s record at Penn State against:
Top 5 teams: 1-15 (.063)
Top 10 teams: 4-20 (.167)
Top 25 teams: 16-28 (.364)
BIG CHALLENGES ISSUED OF QB DREW ALLAR by former Nittany Lion team captains quarterback Christian Hackenberg and linebacker Jason Cabinda, on their podcast, “The Pocket.” Their Sept. 17 episode was especially good, and in it they laid down the gauntlet for Penn State quarterback Drew Allar vs Oregon. Both former Penn State stars say PSU needs BIG things from Allar on Saturday:
Cabinda: “I want to see [Allar] push the needle. You know what I mean? I want that wherever that line of comfort is, I want him to further it.”
Hackenberg: “I think we know where Drew’s floor is. I don’t think we know where his ceiling is.”
