Penn State, James Franklin preparing for hostile environment at Jordan-Hare Stadium
For the first time since 1983, Auburn is hosting a member of the Big Ten for a regular-season contest at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Auburn will play host to Penn State this Saturday in a return trip as part of a home-and-home series agreement. Last season, Auburn traveled to State College and fell to Penn State in a close game, 28-20.
For Penn State head coach James Franklin, he returns to SEC territory for the first time since he last coached a game at Vanderbilt in 2013. During his time in Nashville, Franklin led the Commodores to a 24-15 record in three years, leading Vanderbilt to two straight nine-win seasons.
While at Vanderbilt, Franklin led his team to one victory over Auburn. In 2012, Auburn traveled to Vanderbilt Stadium and lost 17-13.
Saturday will mark the third time that a James Franklin-led team has faced Auburn, but it will be the first time that Franklin has coached at Auburn as a head coach.
In his career, he has only coached one game inside Jordan-Hare Stadium, which was in 2007 when he served as offensive coordinator at Kansas State. The Wildcats, led by future NFL players Josh Freeman and Jordy Nelson, fell to Auburn 23-13 in the season opener that year.
During his weekly press conference, Franklin took plenty of time to discuss multiple aspects of Auburn’s season from Tank Bigsby to his overall respect for Auburn.
The most discussed item when it came to Auburn, is the environment that Auburn fans create inside Jordan-Hare Stadium.
How are the Nittany Lions preparing to play inside Jordan-Hare Stadium? How does the home of the Auburn Tigers compare to playing in Big Ten Stadiums? Franklin’s responses can be seen below.
To glance at everything Franklin said about Auburn ahead of Saturday’s game, check out our friends at Nittany Lions Wire.
Preparing for the "All Auburn, All Orange" game
Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports
It’s going to be a challenge. This is their orange out. We listen to all their press conferences and watched all those things, talked to a lot of people that have played there and been a part of that environment. I’ve been there before as well and played there before. Getting our players prepared for what that will look like and what that’s going to be.
Comparing Jordan-Hare to Big Ten stadiums
AP Photo/Barry Reeger
I think it’s going to be similar to some of better environments in the country. There is no doubt about it. Obviously, they take a ton of pride in their program and their university and their community.
Football is really important there, in that region of the country. So, we know it’s going to be challenging and got a ton of respect for it, but we didn’t wait until this week to get started. We did it during training camp, but really did it last week.
How has Penn State prepared for the environment?
AP Photo/Barry Reeger
We went all silent count all last week in practice with, as everybody knows, the music as loud as possible.
Everybody is like, well, we’re at home this week. Well, obviously, we were starting our preparation a week ahead for that without telling anybody that’s what we were doing.We’ll show them some pictures of what the locker room will look like, what the stadium will look like, show some videos. Obviously, the War Eagle before the game. You know, the band. The scoreboard side of the end zone has been problematic. You watch San Jose State last week. They were able to get down into the low red zone and I think had three penalties in a row that knocked them out of there.
It’s going to be challenging and we are going to try it prepare for it the best we can. At the end of the day, we still have to go out and execute it. And that’s not just with our starters. That’s with whoever could possibly be in the game.
