Blue White Illustrated

The stands at Beaver Stadium and throughout the Big Ten weren't entirely empty last season, as there were often a handful of relatives, fans and staffers scattered throughout the league's ven- ues. But it would be a stretch to call any of those game day gather- ings "crowds," so when Penn State announced last month that it would be wrapping up spring practice April 17 with something akin to an open scrimmage, kicker Jake Pinegar was excited. "It's felt like forever since we played with some fans, so that's going to be re- ally awesome," Pinegar said. "Obviously, I'm not in a position to make that choice or any- thing like that, but the fact that people are allowed to come and support us, and for us to build some hype and be able to practice and play in front of people, that's going to be awesome. Being in that atmosphere is going to hopefully translate to full capacity maybe in the fall, where we can get back to normal, get back to playing games in front of 107,000 people and make Satur- days really, really big and really, really fun again." The Nittany Lions' 15th and final prac- tice of the spring isn't going to be a tra- ditional Blue-White Game, and members of the general public will not be permitted to attend. Instead, Penn State is restricting attendance to stu- dents in the university's 2020-21 fresh- EMPTY FEELING With attendance restricted due to the pandemic, Penn State was forced to settle for cardboard cutouts during the 2020 season. Photo by Steve Manuel NEWS & NOTES F O O T B A L L Lions to welcome freshmen for final practice |

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