Auburn Tigers to welcome Penn State Nittany Lions at home stadium

The No. 22 Penn State Nittany Lions are set to play against the Auburn Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama on Saturday, where the latter will have home field advantage.

This will be the second game for the Nittany Lions and the Tigers in a home-and-home series. Last year, the Tigers were the No. 22 while the Nittany Lions hosted the former, which ended up with the Nittany Lions winning 28-20.

Due to the aforementioned loss, Tigers tight end John Samuel Shenker said that their last game with Penn State left quite a lasting impression, making the team eager for a rematch.

“We think we should have won the football game, for sure,” Shenker said.

Nittany Lions coach James Franklin is aware of the opponent’s advantage and acknowledges the challenge the Tigers may pose to his own team. The Tigers have a preference to place Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter behind the skilled and experienced players in the offensive line. The two rushed for 495 yards and scored eight touchdowns.

“We know it’s going to be challenging,” Franklin said.

“We’ll show them some pictures of what the locker room looks like, what the stadium will look like. We’ll show them some videos, obviously of the ‘War Eagle’ before the game, the band. We’re going to try to prepare for it the best we possibly can but at the end of the day we still have to go out and execute it.”

Franklin further said his team is highly determined and not supposed to be taken lightly, no matter how formidable their opponent is. The Tigers have a preference to place Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter behind the skilled and experienced players in the offensive line. The two rushed for 495 yards and scored eight touchdowns.

"This is going to be a challenge," Franklin said. "There's no doubt about it. You make a mistake against this crew and it has a chance to cost you. They have guys who can make big plays."

Winning by struggle, preparing to host Penn State

The Tigers secured their first victory at the season opener, winning by 42-16 against the Mercer Bears on Saturday. However, following that victorious performance, they struggled early against the San Jose Spartans at their home game on September 10.

Despite initially trailing by 10-7 against the Spartans at the half, the Tigers eventually still managed to come out on top, winning by 24-16 over the Spartans. Tigers linebacker Derick Hall said that they actually had to put up extra effort to fight their way against the Spartans. Yet, he affirmed that this time he is ready to take on further challenges in the competition.

“Obviously, last week we had to fight that one out; we had to play a full four-quarter game, and you know, some weeks it’s like that,” Hall said.

“We know this week, competition’s only going to get harder from here on out, so we have to be consistent with that approach and take it one week at a time. I think the guys are ready. We’re prepared and fired up.”

Hall has played in 11 games for the Tigers in 2021 and is ready to welcome the Nittany Lions in their home stadium, in particular with their "orange out" act.

The aforementioned orange out involves the Tigers encouraging more than 80,000 of their fans to wear orange outfits. There have been some rumors among the fans that said the Tigers may be wearing orange jerseys to further match the look and atmosphere on Saturday afternoon.

Additionally, the Tigers have confirmed that they will also have orange facemasks rather than their traditional blue. During their last season’s game against the Nittany Lions, they previously wore white facemasks.

“Penn State believes they have one of the best environments in college football, but obviously we have the best here in Auburn so it was a great game, great opportunity to be somewhere different from the South to play a game like that,” Hall said.