James Franklin Cuts Music From Penn State Practice To Prepare For The 'Environment' At Northwestern

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Ryan Field, home of the Northwestern Wildcats, is unique. The stadium is nearly 100 years old, one of the smaller stadiums among Power Five programs, and happens to have some of the longest and thickest grass you'll ever see. It's also known for being a sleepy environment, and that's especially true this season following the Pat Fitzgerald scandal and the Wildcats simply being bad.

Penn State plays visitor to Northwestern on Saturday at 11:00 AM CT and Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin is pulling out all the stops to prepare for the 'environment' his team will face this weekend.

READ: NORTHWESTERN WILL MOVE FORWARD WITH EXPENSIVE FOOTBALL STADIUM RENOVATIONS, DESPITE HAZING SCANDAL

The Nittany Lions had their annual white-out game this past weekend against Iowa that hosted over 110,000 fans. The environment in Chicago on Saturday will legitimately feel silent compared to last weekend, therefore Franklin cut music and pumped in noise from certain portions of practice.

This very well could be the first time a team is preparing for a lack of crowd noise in a stadium.

"It's going to be very different from what we played in last week," Franklin said. "Just being transparent and honest. Are we internally motivated or externally motivated? For me to act like it's not a factor, it is, you've got to get prepared for it. We haven't had any music in our period 20."

 

It feels like a bit of overkill for Franklin to cut music from portions of practice to make sure his team is focused and prepared to take on a bad Northwestern team.

The last time the Nittany Lions played at Northwestern was all the way back in 2017, a game in which Penn State took care of business 31-7.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.