What was different for Penn State during this weather delay?
By Greg Pickel
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Penn State is now perhaps the most experienced team in the country when it comes to weather delays. Seven years ago, head coach James Franklin noted that in 23 years of coaching, he had never dealt with such a thing. It was evident as the Lions sputtered and plodded their way to a loss at Michigan State following a three-plus hour delay due to weather in the second quarter of the 2017 meeting between the two sides. Fast forward to 2024, though, and the program had a better plan when a 15-minute halftime turned into a 2 hour and 19 minute delay due to lightning in the area of Milan Puskar Stadium. It led to a 34-12 victory over West Virginia.
There were some key differences between the wait in East Lansing and the one here, of course. The storms in 2017 came out of no where. This time, the forecast predicted potential issues all week, which allowed the Lions to prepare ahead of time with extra food and drinks. Another key difference is that, in 2024, players and coaches can use iPads on game day. Instead of trying to break down the play before the break via memory, they could coach and correct issues in real-time while also making game plan adjustments. And, the tunnel here that leads to the locker room is partially covered, which allowed the staff to set up benches and chairs outside of the cramped locker room away from the elements. That was not the case at Spartan Stadium.
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Put it all together, and the ingredients were all there for the Lions to now allow history to repeat itself.
“This was obviously a much better situation,” head coach James Franklin said. “It’s still challenging when you’re the visiting team, because you’re stuck in a very small locker room. That’s not a critique of West Virginia. It’s like that everywhere, and they have all of their facilities to be able to use. So there’s some real challenges that come with that. I think you guys saw we created kind of out here in the tunnel, some more space. I thought that was helpful as well. And then we just had plenty of food. And again, because we knew that this was a possibility, we were able to get ahead of that. So that was a positive.”
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The players agreed. Running back Nicholas Singleton said he spent most of his time in the locker room stretching and doing other things to be ready to go once it was safe to do so. It worked, as he finished the first Penn State drive of the second half with a 40-yard scoring scamper that put the Nittany Lions up 27-6. Linebacker Tony Rojas, meanwhile, said things were a bit chaotic at first but eventually settled down. So did the Nittany Lions once they returned to the field. And, it helped lead to a sizable victory to start the year.
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“They were telling us that they would tell us when it’s time to really lock back in,” guard Sal Wormley said. “So they really wanted us to relax, take some pads off, col down, hydrate, and get your body right. But then, when it was time to go, they said it was time, everybody strapping up, everybody locking in, the music blasting; Coach Franklin did a great job handling that situation.”
