#MOTSAGRising #NewBlood Buckeyes Set For A Silent Night in Beaver Stadium by Mike Scharf

Penn State’s traditional prime time, “Whiteout” game against Ohio State is the most exciting game of the year and has an atmosphere like no other. Although, the 7:00 primetime game will NOT have that same electric feeling due to fans not being in attendance as a limited number of family members of players, coaches, along with the staff are the only ones permitted in the stadium. 

This includes no gathering around the stadium. The Big Ten announced fan attendance and tailgating is prohibited this year because the health and safety concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19.

That being said, the primetime game will have an uncanny feeling of not seeing 110,000 in white screaming for all 3 hours and 24 minutes giving the Buckeyes an advantage come game time. 

There’s no denying that Coach Franklin’s team uses their Whiteout game to bring them liveliness. No better example of this as last season Michigan was forced to call a timeout on the first play of the game due to the noise created by the fans in the stadium. When the Big Ten announced there was no season former Buckeye quarterback Kirk Herbstreit voiced his disappoint (on ESPN) with regards to a Penn State whiteout against the Buckeyes not taking place saying: “I always tell people that have never been to Penn State, or they ask ‘What’s your favorite venue to watch a game? You go to Penn State at night when it’s a White Out, it’s as good as a scene there is,” Herbstreit said. “When Ohio State comes in there it seems to be amped even a few more notches.”

Ohio State will take full advantage of the atmosphere this Saturday as play-calling will come much more relaxed in the sense of thousands not being there making noise. The Whiteout would have been many of the Buckeyes first, notably big-name players on the offense: Justin Fields, Master Teague, Trey Sermon, Garrett Wilson, Josh Myers, Jameson Williams, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Julian Fleming. True Freshman Julian Fleming, a Pennsylvania native also has some added incentive since earlier this week speaking about his home state team and how his recruitment went down. Looks for Fleming to do as much damage as he can against a Nittany Lion team that desperately wanted him on their team a year ago.