Penn State Sports Magazine
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The Nittany Lions prepare for a raucous atmosphere in Kinnick Stadium NO TRESPASSING MATT hERB | M A T T@B L U E WH I T E O N L I N E . C O M The Big Ten's most hostile road des- tination? As far as Penn State is con- cerned – and a lot of other conference teams, no doubt – that distinction would almost certainly go to Ohio State. The Buckeyes and their bom- bastic home crowd combine to make Ohio Stadium about as inhospitable a venue as there is in the country. But if the Horseshoe is No. 1 on the Nittany Lions' list, Iowa's Kinnick Sta- dium might just be No. 1A. It has 70,585 seats, a number of which are situated in close proximity to the op- ponent's bench. It has pink walls in the visitors' locker room, a psycholog- ical ploy left over from the days of for- mer coach Hayden Fry, who wanted to take a bit of the aggressiveness out of Iowa's opponents. And on Saturday night, Kinnick will be filled with un- ruly fans who've spent most of the day in the parking lot getting tuned up for the late kickoff. "It's real hostile. The fans there are pretty crazy," senior safety Jake Fag- nano said. "It's just an exciting place to play football and it's been one of my favorite places to travel to, so we know what it's going to be like there, and we get excited for it." The stadium definitely was rocking the last time Penn State traveled to Iowa City in October 2010. It was homecoming weekend, and the na- tionally televised night game was sold out. Fans dressed in either gold or black and sat in alternating blocks throughout the stadium. The raucous atmosphere, coupled with a fierce Iowa defense, made for a tough night. Iowa romped to a 24-3 victory – the team's ninth in 11 games against Penn State. Fagnano, who backs up Stephen Obeng-Agyapong at strong safety, re- members the game well. "They did a pretty cool black-and-yellow-out," he said. "Their stadium was packed. It was loud." No matter what the circumstances, Steve Manuel SCREAMING HAWKS Kinnick Stadium is "real hostile," Fagnano said. "The fans there are crazy." visiting players can always expect to receive an earful from Iowa fans be- cause the edge of the stands is so close to the bench. Said Fagnano, "Their fans are right on your back. Your bench is about five feet from them. And during the game, they're going to be pretty crazy. They're going to be riled up, and you're going to be able to hear everything they say. You've just got to stay focused." Penn State's upperclassmen are more intimately familiar with the venue than their first-year coach, but Bill O'Brien knows what kind of envi- ronment to expect this weekend. "It's a very difficult place to play, as are most of the places in the Big Ten," he said. "It's going to be an electric at- mosphere. The crowd noise is defi- nitely going to be a factor, so we've got to make sure that we deal with that in the right way. We've got to practice with crowd noise and make sure that our players do a great job of commu- nicating – offense, defense, special teams." Penn State can simulate noise in practice, but it can't simulate the night-game conditions. The Lions are O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 2 11 unable to practice at night, O'Brien said, due to conflicts with players' class schedules and the timing of their study halls and tutoring sessions. "What we can do," he said, "is maybe go out there a little bit later so that when the sun is going down, we put the lights on so maybe we're fielding some punts in some lights or catching some long balls in some lights, things like that." The Nittany Lions weren't faring very well at Kinnick Stadium even before the NCAA declared 14 seasons' worth of victories null and void. Penn State has lost four in a row in Iowa City, and the only road victory that had to be vacated was a 31-7 rout in 1999, Kirk Ferentz's first season as coach. Still, the Lions prevailed last year, 13-3, at Beaver Stadium and are eager to resume a series that has de- veloped into one of their better rival- ries. "We've been in some real close ballgames with Iowa," Fagnano said. "Last year it went our way. The past couple didn't. Especially in my time here, us and Iowa – it's been a rivalry, and I can say we're real excited to play them." B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M