The good news: Penn State hasn’t lost to Iowa on the road since 2010 and has only lost once in the last seven meetings between the two programs.
The bad news: The Nittany Lions have won three of the last four games against the Hawkeyes by a combined total of 13 points. Nothing comes easy against Iowa, let alone at Kinnick Stadium, one the loudest places in college football.
“It’s a tough environment,” Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week. “There’s no doubt about it. We’ve got a lot of respect for that school and that community and the support that they give their football program … I think obviously what makes it challenging is the size of the crowd. The intensity of the crowd. And then kind of the way their field is set up. The sidelines are tight. They are right on top of you.”
“And it’s, I guess probably like our stadium, you have fans that have had season tickets forever. So, we started to kind of build a relationship with these people. You know their names and they know a lot about you. And it’s a tough environment. But we’re looking forward to it.”
Whether or not Franklin knows the name of fans just feet away from the sidelines remains to be seen, but it is safe to say Franklin knows the perils of playing at Kinnick all too well. In 2017, it took until the final play of the game for the Nittany Lions to eek out a victory thanks to a Juwan Johnson catch and a Saquon Barkley hurdle.
A 17-12 victory over the Hawkeyes was a bit less memorable in 2019 but no less important for then first-year starting quarterback Sean Clifford many moons ago.
“Kinnick is extremely loud and they have a good fan base and do a great job of bringing that energy which is awesome because that’s what college football is all about,” Clifford said on Wednesday. “It’s gonna be fun to see everybody out there and going crazy and whatnot.”
The good news for a Penn State team coming off a four-game home stretch within the friendly walls of Beaver Stadium is that a Week 1 victory over Wisconsin on the road was a good warmup for this Saturday’s clash with Iowa.
For a team that is doing a lot of things for the first time together, managing to win in front of a hostile crowd certainty doesn’t hurt the confidence any. Being led by a quarterback that has more than a few road wins under his belt – including one at Iowa – doesn’t hurt matters any either.
It also doesn’t hurt to be on a nine-game winning streak since starting 0-5 in 2020.
“I mean it definitely helps to get some road game experience,” Clifford said. “For myself, I’ve played in a lot of big games now and I’ve dealt with crowd noise so, you know, not necessarily for me. Every game is a great learning experience for me. But yeah you know you just got to work on it during practice to make sure that you’re ready for it. But I’m definitely excited to play at Kinnick again.”
Penn State will take Clifford’s performance in the 2019 meeting too, a 12-for-24, 117-yard 1-touchdown performance that didn’t include a single interception. The Nittany Lions managed 177-yards on the ground getting 102-yards from Noah Cain.
At the end of the day though the Nittany Lions will take the win however they can get it, and silence a wild atmosphere in the process.
