UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Trace McSorley heard about the famous pink visitor's locker room at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium and defensive end Shareef Miller already asked Penn State's trainers about the road environment.
"I heard the fans are right behind the bench so they said don't put your helmet next to the fans or they're going to take it," Miller said. "I'm not going to do that."
While the crowd is situated very close to the field, making the atmosphere just that much louder for the visitors, that's exactly what Penn State is stepping into this week when the No. 4 Nittany Lions head to Iowa City for Saturday night's game against Kirk Ferentz's Hawkeyes (3-0). It's the first true test of the season for Penn State, and while James Franklin wants to see more consistency from Penn State's run game, there will also be crowd noise to factor in for the Lions' first road trip of the season. Expect Penn State to keep cranking the crowd noise at practice all this week.
"It's a tough place," McSorley said. "We'll probably have loud music and all that kind of stuff and have to deal with noise at practice and I hear Iowa gets pretty rowdy so it'll be something that we'll have to handle and that we'll have to practice for and be ready to adjust to on Saturday."
While it's a break from the cozy confines of Beaver Stadium, Franklin has long mentioned the value and the uniqueness of a road trip, stressing that those people getting on the plane Friday afternoon are the only ones who are going to be able to determine the outcome. It'll be the first look at Penn State's travel roster as well, which typically sheds light on what freshmen or younger players the staff wants to factor in this season. Usually Penn State tries to rotate some of the younger players so they can all experience a road trip so that way next season the entire process isn't foreign to them.
"I'm excited just to play another game and I don't really care that it's Big Ten," Saquon Barkley said. "Obviously I know and am aware that it's Big Ten play, but I'm just excited for the next game. You're only blessed with so many games."
SCANNING THE SIDELINE
Penn State had a list of more than 50 recruits on hand for the Georgia State game, notably uncommitted prospects Jayson Oweh and Micah Parsons, plus some of the Lions' 2018 verbal pledges in Charlie Katshir, Zack Kuntz, Shaquon Anderson-Butts and 2019 verbal pledge Keaton Ellis. The verbal commits met Franklin at the 50 before the game and exchanged hugs and handshakes.
How do the rest of these takeaway categories during this three-game stretch compare to the rest of the Franklin era at Penn State? At this pace the Lions would have 24 picks, 12 fumble recoveries and 16 forced fumbles this season. That likely won't happen given the improved level of competition that's coming, but still that's quite different than where this defense was.