The weather forecast for Penn State’s game on Saturday against Auburn calls for a high of 87 degrees and sunny skies, a perfect fall afternoon in the South as two storied programs go head-to-head for the second game of the home-and-home series.
If the forecast holds true temperature at kickoff will be a full 11 degrees hotter than it was when the two teams met last season at Beaver Stadium. And yes perhaps it is a bit played out to note when SEC teams have to go north and Big Ten teams have to head south — but weather is a factor and certainly something to be respected. Not to mention the crowd noise that will come with some 87,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs.
Enter two things: a silent count and a hot practice.
“I’ve heard a lot about it; it’s fantastic stadium,” Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford said on Tuesday of Jordan-Hare Stadium, where the Tigers call home. “The fan base is really good and you know, they bring a lot of noise and a lot of juice. I’m definitely familiar with [noise, playing at] Beaver Stadium. The silent cadence we’ve been practicing for a little bit now and it’s going well … realistically, you know it just takes a day or two and you’re ready to go.”
Fortunately for Penn State it stands to reason things will go far better this time on the road with a silent count than they did when the Nittany Lions and then back-up quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson struggled to implement it following a game-ending injury to Clifford against Iowa last year. With Clifford’s experience on the road in noisy Big Ten stadiums this shouldn’t be anything new for him, but nevertheless practice makes perfect. So much so that Penn State actually started silent-count practice in the lead-up to last weekend’s Ohio game in order to get even more reps in that mode of offense.
But that heat, well everyone has to power though it, not to mention a long commute to the game.
“We messed around with Holuba Hall closing the doors and turning the heat on in there and trying to get prepared for that as well,” Penn State coach James Franklin said of the Nittany Lions’ normally well ventilated indoor facility. “We really were working on flying in to [Auburn] but that wasn’t able to get done. So flights, you know, are challenging. Hotels are challenging. Our hotel is about an hour from campus. I actually think [Auburn] used to stay an hour from campus as the home team, so there are some things that we’re going to talk to the team about today just to be prepared for but we’ve got a plan for it … I don’t want to ask them ever to be caught off guard on Saturday afternoon, that they’re prepared for what those types of things are going to be. But for the most part, everything else in our routine will be similar and we’ll be as prepared as we possibly can be.”
All things considered it might be hot Saturday, and it might be a long drive to the game, but come November when the Nittany Lions are facing Michigan State, they’ll be longing to feel that heat again.
