Penn State Football took on the Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday night for a primetime showdown. I don’t know if fans got the memo.
I had the opportunity to witness the week one win for the Nittany Lions, so here is my honest review of the game experience at Ross-Ade Stadium.
Pregame
Penn State offers plenty of tailgating and pre-game festivities. There was none of that on the side of the stadium where I came from. The fraternities seemed to be having a good time, but other than that, not much was going on.
The streets filled with students 90 minutes before the game, and they weren’t the most welcoming. Chants erupted from different groups heading to the game. The most popular was a single “F*** Penn State”. The other chant that I didn’t hear as often was “Touchdowns, not kids”.
Going up to the stadium, the south end zone is completely open with a giant screen taking up most of it. Entrance was unique as you can enter at ground level. You can also catch a glimpse of the “biggest drum in the world”; it wasn’t that big.
Game time
The game was the first Blackout game hosted by Purdue since 2018 against Ohio State. The Penn State faithful made sure to wear white and had a strong Penn State side presence on the court.
The noise in Ross-Ade Stadium is largely made by the PA system. The PA system plays the train whistle and general crowd noise until 15 seconds remain in the game clock. Once turned off, the crowd cannot sustain the volume.
The student section didn’t seem too involved in the game and as far as I can tell didn’t have an effect on the game. Penn State Football had no penalties before the break and had no issues to communicate.
Purdue Boilermaker fans react after the Penn State Nittany Lions scored a touchdown in the final minutes of the game during the NCAA football game against the Purdue Boilermaker, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022, at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind. Penn State won 35-31.
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After Penn State went up 21-10 at halftime, most of the conversation in the hall turned to basketball and the quality of the team this year. The lobby was a whole other issue. The hall was not open to the outside. While the temperature outside was in the 70s, in the lobby it must have been over 100 degrees, even hotter in the washrooms.
After Sean Clifford picked six picks in the fourth quarter, I thought the crowd would come into the game and create a noise problem. They do not have.
Exam
Overall the stadium is a bit smaller and reminded me of Spartan Stadium. You can definitely tell that the fans are more interested in the basketball team than the football team. The “We Are” chants were the most organized cheers of the entire night.
While the game was great, the atmosphere and experience was really underwhelming.
