You can use all kinds of different colors to paint the picture for Penn State’s game at Iowa next Saturday night.
Green for a lack of team history at Kinnick Stadium.
Pink for the Hawkeyes’ visiting locker rooms.
Black & Gold for the stripe-out Iowa has called for the 6:35 p.m. Central Time kickoff.
And well-read for the PSU QB’s B10 IQ.
Nittany Lion quarterback Trace McSorley knows all about the historic venue that will serve as Penn State’s first road test after three wins at home in Beaver Stadium to start 2017.
‘I know it’s a tough place to play,’ said McSorley, who threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns, and ran for a fifth, in a 56-0 blowout of Georgia State on Saturday. ‘I heard they had pink locker rooms and Michigan painted over them last year. It’s going to be prime time, it’s been announced that it’s a night game, it will be the first time in 2017 that we’re going on the road and we’re playing in the Big Ten, at Iowa.
‘It’s going to be an experience for us. We’re probably to have loud music at practice (this week), getting used to the noise. I’ve heard Iowa is pretty rowdy, so it’s something we’ll have to handle and practice for, and be ready adjust to next Saturday.’
BARKLEY’S HUE AND CRY
Adjusting shouldn’t be a problem, if you listen carefully to McSorley’s RPO running mate Saquon Barkley, who gained 226 all-purpose yards against Georgia State in a little more than a half’s work — averaging 15.1 yards on only 15 touches. He now ranks No. 2 in the nation for all-purpose yardage, at 218.3 yards per game.
Color Barkley self-assured.
‘We’re a very confident team,’ Saquon said in a post-game, on-the-field interview with the Big Ten Network on Saturday night.
‘And,’ he added, ‘a confident team is a scary team.’
The Nittany Lions should be, on both counts. They are 3-0 and ranked No. 4 in the country, after dismantling their first three opponents by an aggregate of 141-14, with two shutouts. They’ve won 12 consecutive regular season contests, if you count the Big Ten title game. During that stretch, they have won by an average score of 42-16.
But playing in Iowa City in the not-always-cozy confines of Kinnick Stadium, will be something new for all of the Penn State players and most of the Nittany Lion coaches. Kinnick — brick-faced and located at the edge of campus next to a neighborhood, was constructed in 1929 and most recently renovated in 2006 — has a reputation as a tough place to play. The first row of seats behind the Penn State bench will be just a few feet away, so the fans are often part of the sideline chatter.
HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE
Beyond McSorley, for many of the other Penn State players — who were supposed to be thinking of only Georgia State, Georgia State, Georgia State last week — Kinnick’s reputation precedes itself. (In their defense, the following comments came after Saturday night’s game.)
‘We know,’ said safety Troy Apke, ‘it’s a great environment. It might be a blackout or something.’ (A stripe-out, actually, with sections of fans in alternating black and gold colors.)
‘I heard,’ said defensive end Shareef Miller, ‘that it’s a hostile environment. But we’re going to be prepared for it. I heard that the fans are right behind the bench. You can’t put down your helmet close to the fans or they’ll take it. I’m not going to do that.’
‘I’ve heard,’ said running back Andre Robinson, ‘that their atmosphere for opposing teams is pretty similar to ours. We’re going to bring a focus to the plane ride and all that goes into that. Our standard will still be our standard.’
RED LETTER DATES
Penn State last visited Kinnick in 2012 and won 38-14 under Bill O’Brien. But in Penn State’s four trips prior to that, the Hawkeyes won four straight — by 24-3 (2010), 24-23 (2008, when PSU was ranked No. 3), 26-14 (2003) and 24-18 (2001).
Among the core Penn State staff, only a few have been to Kinnick. It will be head coach James Franklin’s first trip there. Franklin continues to make the rounds of Big Ten stadiums. As Penn State’s head coach since 2014, he’s won in his first trips to the home on-campus stadiums of Indiana, Purdue and Rutgers. He’s lost in his initial trips as PSU’s HC to Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern (where he previously lost with Vanderbilt), and Ohio State. The 2015 Penn State-Maryland game was played in Baltimore and won by Penn State; on Nov. 25 Penn State will play at Byrd Stadium on the College Park campus, where as an Terps assistant Franklin has coached countless times. After 2017, only Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin will remain on his away-game, on-campus Big Ten Bucket List.
The Penn State staff does have some experience playing in Iowa City. As the offensive coordinator at Minnesota, second-year PSU O-line coach Matt Limegrover has been there twice. The Gophers lost on the road to the Hawkeyes, 31-3, in 2012, and 40-35 in 2015. As a grad assistant at Northwestern in 1994, Limegrover was also on the losing side of the ledger, as the Wildcats fell on the road to the Hawkeyes 49-13 that year.
Tim Banks, Penn State’s second-year safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator, was the D-coordinator at Illinois from 2012-2015. And while there, his Illini fell to Kirk Ferentz’s Iowa squad, 29-20, in Kinnick.
A couple of older-school Penn Staters do have good memories of Kinnick. Tim Bream, head athletic trainer for football, returned from a long stint with the Chicago Bears to his alma mater to work with O’Brien in 2012. So he was there on Oct. 20, 2012 — the date of Penn State’s most recent visit to Iowa City — when O’Brien’s Lions jumped out to a 38-0 lead, as Bill Belton ran for 103 yards and three TDs, and Matt McGloin completed 26 of 38 passes for 289 yards, with touchdown passes to fellow future NFLers Jesse James and Allen Robinson.
Among those Penn Staters making the trip to Iowa City for Saturday’s game, no one will have better vibes than Wally Richardson. Now the director of the PSU Football Letterman’s Club, Richardson was 20-5 as a starting quarterback for Penn State. And the 1995 Penn State-Iowa game was one of his gems. Penn State trailed 27-24 early in the fourth quarter. But Richardson led the Nittany Lions to three consecutive scoring drives, including back-to-back touchdown passes of 13 and 43 yards to Bobby Engram, to give Penn State a 41-27 come-from-behind victory. That day, Penn State had 517 yards of total offense (519 run, 202 pass).
RED-HOT EARLY
The 2017 version of Penn State, which was 5-7-2 at halftime in 2016, can’t always count on such comebacks. Against the Hawkeyes on Saturday, both Apke and veteran linebacker Brandon Smith said the Nittany Lions have to start quickly.
‘We have to bring our own energy from a defensive perspective,’ Smith said. ‘Obviously, it’s great here in Beaver Stadium with our crowd. They’re loud and get us really riled up. Out there, they’re going to be cheering for their offense when we’re on the field. We have to control what we can control.’
That might just include a little PSU DIY on the the decor in the visitors’ locker room at Kinnick.
Since the days when Hayden Fry was the Iowa head coach, the visitors’ locker room has been painted pink — these days, that includes the urinals, the shower and the ceiling. For Michigan’s game in Kinnick in 2016, head coach Jim Harbaugh had the Wolverines’ managers cover up the walls with Michigan posters and the like. Read about it — and see it on video — here.
Knowing Franklin has his undergrad degree in psychology, and given his penchant for bench-marking, it will be interesting to see if he makes any sort of stink about the pink.
Or, will he treat it like every other visiting locker room, and do nothing?
In other words, color me curious.
