James Franklin raves about 'White Out' crowd, issues challenge to fans ahead of Ohio State game

After a blowout loss to Michigan in Week 7, Penn State was in need of a major bounce-back performance on Saturday against Minnesota. The game served as Penn State’s annual ‘White Out’ inside Beaver Stadium, and the environment created by the fans was very impressive in the eyes of James Franklin.

After Penn State’s 45-17 victory over Minnesota, Franklin thanked the Nittany Lions fanbase for their impact on the game, and issued a challenge to them ahead of another difficult home matchup with No. 2 Ohio State in Week 9.

“The first thing I’d like to do is to thank the fans,” Franklin said after Penn State’s victory. “This is one of the more special environments in all of sports, not just in college football but in all of sports. They had a huge impact tonight. You’re talking about an offense that wants to run the ball and RPO, and for them to get off schedule because they had five false start penalties, which I’m gonna give credit to our fans for that.

“We’re gonna need that again next Saturday. So don’t allow anybody to get our tickets. Let’s dominate that stadium again next week with our fans, make it a real challenging environment. But I wanted to take a minute to thank our fans for the impact they had in the game.”

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Franklin thinks the ‘White Out’ crowd will have a long-term impact on Penn State’s future

The ‘White Out’ is undoubtedly one of the most iconic environments in sports, and most definitely college football. This one had great short-term impacts for Penn State, who was on the heels of that crushing loss to Michigan. But the Nittany Lions responded well and picked up a big win over a quality Big Ten opponent.

In Franklin’s eyes, though, the more significant impact of that ‘White Out’ crowd will come down the road for Penn State.

“First of all, we’re 1-0,” Franklin added. “We’re happy to be 1-0. It was a good win, it was a great environment. Was a ton of recruits there that are gonna have a huge impact on our future. If you look at our roster, talk to players, how many of them have been at a ‘White Out’ and said, ‘I want to play in that type of environment.’ So yeah, it helps from a bunch of different perspectives.

“I haven’t looked around or [seen] what happened across college football as far as scores or things like that, but this was a good win for us against a good opponent at home and obviously with a crowd and people in the crowd that are gonna have a significant impact on our future. So for a lot of different reasons, it was important.”

Penn State is up to No. 13 in the latest AP Top 25 rankings, but another challenging home game awaits against No. 2 Ohio State. The Nittany Lions open as a 15-point home underdog against the high-powered Buckeyes, so any impact the fans can have on the game will be welcomed by Penn State.