Indiana football has perhaps two of the best road wins in college football this season.
The Hoosiers made their first road trip of the season Sept. 27 and defeated Iowa by 5 points inside Kinnick Stadium, a historically loud and challenging venue for visitors to succeed in.
Two weeks later, they traveled to Autzen Stadium — where road teams have won just twice in the last four seasons — and emerged with a 10-point victory over then-No. 3 Oregon on Oct. 11.
Now, Indiana faces another daunting environment at noon Saturday: traveling to play Penn State at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania.
The Nittany Lions (3-5 overall, 0-5 Big Ten) enter their third contest under interim head coach Terry Smith, who took over for fired head coach James Franklin.
Penn State, which began the season ranked in The Associated Press’ top five, is also without its starting quarterback Drew Allar, who underwent season-ending surgery to repair a broken ankle. Redshirt freshman signal caller Ethan Grunkemeyer now commands the Nittany Lions’ offense.
Although Penn State has yet to notch a victory over a Power Four opponent, it’s still a respectable squad. The Nittany Lions are ranked as the 22nd-best team in the country, according to ESPN’s College Football Power Index.
Saturday’s contest marks Penn State’s first home game under Smith. The fan base largely turned on Franklin, as he failed to win games against highly-ranked opponents throughout his 12-year tenure.
With the 106,572-seat Beaver Stadium likely full of Nittany Lions fans, the Hoosiers are facing a substantial challenge as they seek a 10-0 start for the second consecutive season. They’ve yet to win at the famed stadium in 13 previous tries.
“You get that when you play in the Big Ten,” redshirt junior linebacker Isaiah Jones said during player media availability Tuesday. “Some of these stadiums, they got the 100,000 fans. That’s something you just try to tune out. You try to stay within the white lines and do the best you can.”
During the Hoosiers’ victories over the Hawkeyes and Ducks, they used a silent count to snap the ball. Redshirt junior right guard Bray Lynch looked toward redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza in the backfield to understand when he wanted to receive the ball.
Then, Lynch extended his left arm into redshirt senior center Pat Coogan’s vision. Coogan then snapped the ball to Mendoza.
Indiana struggled to stay composed in noisy environments last season in its two losses to Ohio State and the University of Notre Dame. It's largely not been a problem this season.
Although the Hoosiers passed their previous two tests, Beaver Stadium presents a unique hurdle.
“We need to worry about taking care of business ‘cause it’s going to be a huge challenge for us,” Coogan said. “Obviously, everyone knows how challenging playing at their stadium is. So, we got to prepare for it and we got to be ready for it. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
At the end of the day, Jones said the Hoosiers view the matchup as “just another Saturday, another game.” Still, he said the crowd will likely play into the Nittany Lions’ favor.
However, leaving Beaver Stadium with a victory would mark yet another program first, which Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti’s squad has had many of in his two seasons at the helm.
“It’s special from a macro perspective,” Coogan said, “but at the end of the day, we need to focus on what we need to focus on to be successful.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
