How Penn State Got a Head Start on Auburn
After practicing through roaring crowd noise and blaring train horns before their opener at Purdue, Penn State expected some quiet last week. Instead, the Lions met a blast of music louder than the week before.
And this was ahead of a home game, where crowd noise for the offense isn't an issue.
"The guys are looking at me like I was crazy," Penn State coach James Franklin said. "The staff and the players."
But Franklin had a plan. While preparing for Ohio, he also was looking ahead to this week's visit to Auburn. That meant the rare buzz of noise while practicing for a home game, quarterbacks applying silent snap counts and the doors closed and heat turned on at Holuba Hall to simulate the steamy conditions expected at Jordan-Hare Stadium
Franklin intended to leave nothing to chance for Penn State's first trip to Auburn.
"We didn't wait until this week to get started," Franklin said. "We did it during training camp, but really we did it last week."
Penn State has never been to Auburn and hasn't played an SEC road game since a 2010 visit to Alabama, meaning this will be a new experience for most everyone involved. So to prepare, Franklin approached it almost like a bowl game or Penn State's 2014 trip to Ireland. As usual, the program advance-scouted locations for flights and hotels near Auburn, determining that the team would stay about an hour away.
"Flights are challenging, hotels are challenging," Franklin said, as many coaches do when discussing travel to Penn State.
Staff members have compiled photos and video of Jordan-Hare Stadium, including the visitor's locker room. They've studied the crowd ("The scoreboard side of the end zone has been problematic," Franklin said). They're pointing to Auburn declaring this game an "All Orange" for fans. They even have video of Auburn's pre-game War Eagle flight.
"I don't want them ever to be caught off-guard on a Saturday afternoon," Franklin said.
That goes for in-game as well. Sometimes, circumstances happen, like the 2017 game at Michigan State, where the players sat in wet uniforms and ate Chick-fil-A during a 3-hour rain delay. Other times, those circumstances are preventable.
Last year, Penn State was unprepared when quarterback Sean Clifford left the game at Iowa with an injury. Then-backup quarterback Ta'Quan Roberson entered to clanging noise near the end zone, and teammates couldn't hear his calls. The Lions ultimately were called for eight false starts, and Iowa rallied from a 14-point deficit to win.
So last week, Franklin had his quarterbacks use silent snap counts during practice but didn't tell them why.
"Everybody is like, 'We're at home this week,'" Franklin said. "Well, obviously we were starting our preparation a week ahead for that without telling anybody that's what we were doing."
Clifford said he expects Auburn's fans to bring "a lot of noise and a lot of juice" to Saturday's game, so he understood the practice changes. Clifford thought it went smoothly.
"The silent cadence, we’ve been practicing it a little bit now," Clifford said. "It's been going well. It was an adjustment at first to time things up. ... Realistically, it just takes a day or two and you're ready to go."
Franklin is 2-0 as a head coach against Auburn, with both wins coming in home games. The Lions won 28-20 at Beaver Stadium last year, and Franklin coached Vanderbilt to a 17-13 win over the Tigers in 2012.
Saturday, though, will be different.
"We'll be as prepared as we possibly can be for the environment," Franklin said. "At the end of the day, you've still got to be able to go execute in the moment."
Auburn hosts Penn State at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium. CBS will televise.
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