Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1410640
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 1 13 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M atmosphere was celebratory. And that was before the Nittany Lions' offense began marching up and down the field with regularity. Franklin said he was thrilled to have fans in the stands again. "I thought the environment was great in here," he said. "This is the best open- ing home-game attendance we've had since 2008, and I am very appreciative of that. I know the community is apprecia- tive of it as well, and I thought it had an impact on the game today. We are going to need that moving forward." Players, too, were excited to be play- ing in front of real crowds again. Last year's home games weren't played be- fore entirely empty houses; the families of players and staff were allowed in the stadium, and Penn State listed its official attendance for the Ohio State, Maryland and Iowa games at 1,500. "To have everyone back at Beaver Sta- dium, obviously, you can't beat it," se- nior quarterback Sean Clifford said. "It's pretty exciting stuff. To have 105,000 and to see everyone back and enjoy- ing themselves and looking up into the crowd and seeing everyone's faces, you know that's what Penn State football is about." "It was crazy today," junior running back Noah Cain added. "Just coming back from last year, it's probably easy for us players to take it for granted. You know, you see it so much. But when it gets taken away from you, you get to see how much it really means to the players, and the emotions and what the fans are bringing, the vibe and just the atmo- sphere. "So it was just crazy to come back out here and warm up, seeing the students yelling, and our parents and everybody out here. It's just a blessing to be back out here on the field." A number of Nittany Lions were playing in front of a crowd for the first time since high school. Wideout Parker Washington was one of those players. He was a true freshman last year when he finished second on the team with 489 receiving yards, and he was more than satisfied with his first taste of a real Penn State game day. "It was exciting to see the culture," he said. "Before this year and even before last year, I used to watch a lot of stuff on Penn State, and it's just exciting to see it in person and finally be a part of it." Franklin has been cautious through- out the pandemic, primarily because his daughter Addison suffers from sickle cell disease. His family's plan for the opener was to arrive late in order to avoid the crowds pouring into the stadium. But just as Penn State fans like to begin their game day experience as early as possible — often days early — the Frank- lins, too, would prefer to get things roll- ing. At least that was the case on opening day. "I didn't think my wife and family were going to be here, because their plan was to come an hour after kickoff and leave an hour after to avoid the crowd," Franklin said. "So it kind of caught me off-guard to walk in and see them in here. That was cool, too." ■