EAST LANSING, Mich. – Saquon Barkley kicked his feet up as the Nittany Lions blasted music in their locker room and makeshift holding area at Spartan Stadium.
Other players scanned through their iPads and phones looking for more game film to watch to help pass the time, while Penn State’s staffers made the all-important run to Chick-Fil-A to bring the players back sandwiches.
“It’s Mother Nature,” linebacker Koa Farmer said. “There’s nothing you really can do. … It was weird. …. We started playing music, got our energy up and it was kind of like we were coming on the field for the first time. I kind of forgot it was the second quarter.”
What else were the Nittany Lions supposed to do when dealt a lightning delay that lasted 3 hours and 23 minutes, one that kept them holed up in the bowels of Spartan Stadium with 7:58 left in the first half? It was far from ideal for both Penn State and Michigan State as they waited from 1:15 p.m. until the game resumed at 4:38 p.m. – which came after a 13-minute warmup and some scurrying after the previously announced 5:30 p.m. restart time was hastily changed to 4:38 p.m.
“I’ve never been a part of something like that before and for me to sit here, and I like to say that we have a plan for whatever may come, I didn’t have anything in my head coaching manual about how to handle a three-hour and 22-minute delay,” James Franklin said. “But I guarantee you I will have one moving forward. I’ll talk to sports scientists, I’ll talk to other coaches, I’ll go through every detail what happened today, we will make sure that we have the best plan possible to put our kids in a position to be successful. We were not prepared for a three-hour and 22-[minute] delay. But again, [Michigan State] had the same delay as we did.”
It wasn’t an excuse for Franklin, but the circumstances were unusual. Players scattered in the media room as they took their pads off, tried to stay hydrated and focused and not get overhyped, which all made for an extraordinary experience.
Defensive tackle Tyrell Chavis laughed and said yes, this was the most unusual game he’s ever been a part of. Linemate Kevin Givens downed a sandwich during the stop in the action while DaeSean Hamilton, Juwan Johnson and DeAndre Thompkins watched some of Saturday’s other noon games.
“The coaches went over some tips for the game plan, some people watched film, watched other games, we all stayed within our zone,” Thompkins said. “The coaches made sure we were focused enough and not going in and playing around.”
There was plenty of downtime to be had. A humorous video even surfaced (then was later taken down) of running back Mark Allen throwing grapes at Barkley, who was catching them in his mouth while teammates counted out how many he caught in a row. It was the players’ way of making the best of a difficult situation, while fans were scattered across campus to classrooms and lecture halls where they took shelter by hitting up vending machines and watching other games.
Neither coaching staff wanted to give up halftime, so the Lions’ game ended around 7:15 p.m., more than 7 hours after it kicked off.
"I thought we handled that pretty well as a team," Barkley said. "We had a lot of energy in the locker room, a lot of energy coming out too. That’s something we were obviously worried about, but it didn’t really matter because they were going through the same situation, too. They had a delay, too. ... No excuses. We gotta find a way to make more plays than them."