Ahead of their week one trip to No. 7 Penn State, West Virginia is blocking out the noise — both literally and figuratively.
At whatever point in the first quarter when the West Virginia offense takes the field on Saturday night at Beaver Stadium, it is going to be loud. Opposing offenses have a history of false starts, delay of game penalties, and not being able to hear themselves think when they roll into Penn State for a night game.
West Virginia center Zach Frazier has seen clips of what the atmosphere can be like and acknowledged the noise will be a factor.
“I would say it doesn’t really matter but the crowd noise does,” Frazier said. “What I’ve heard this is going to be a loud game. The biggest thing is that is communication when you can’t hear the person next to you.”
Inside the West Virginia practice facility on Monday, they turned it up. Closed doors, speakers blaring, trying to replicate the 100,000-plus people that will be in attendance on Saturday.
“It’s going to be loud and so we try our best. We locked them in the indoor today and we shut all the doors and we made it as loud as possible,” Brown said.
“Is it as loud as it’s going to be there — I don’t know. I’ve never been there, I’ve never played there. I’ve been to the stadium, but I’ve never played a game there. But our guys are going to be prepared for that (the noise), or as loud as we can possibly get it here. That can’t be an excuse. It can’t be an excuse but it is a challenge and it’s something you got to work.”
Figuratively speaking, Brown and company are going to have to block out the noise of rolling into an away game, week one, on national television, and try to beat a top-10 team, while they were the team picked to finish last in their own league.
“I like being an underdog,” Frazier said. “I like when people doubt us. That kind of fuels me at least.”
Frazier will be tasked with working with whomever plays at quarterback for WVU and be clean on protection assignments, snaps, while also trying to work around 100,000 screaming Penn State fans.
“Some of the louder games I played earlier in my career, we kind of changed how we do the snap count a little bit… just because it is harder to hear the quarterback’s voice,” Frazier said.
The stage will be grand and the lights will be bright. This game is a “bunny ear game” as Brown calls it as NBC is televising the game.
“Anytime you play on national television, it’s an opportunity,” Brown said. “It’s up to us to make the most of it.”
Making the most of this opportunity is what safety Aubrey Burks will attempt to do. Burks is one of the main mouthpieces on the defense for West Virginia, and he says he isn’t bothered by WVU being a heavy underdog.
“We know our back’s against the wall. I love it,” Burks said. “Everybody in this facility believes in us. That’s all we need is everybody in this facility to believe in us and if we’ve got that, then we should be okay for this year.”
The noise will certainly be loud Saturday night, but Brown says in order to create noise of their own, the Mountaineers must believe in yourselves — something West Virginia seems to be doing.
“I think it really starts with belief. You’ve got to have belief not only in yourself, but the people around you and the plan you’re taking into the contest,” Brown said. “We’re not going to go and make all the plays versus Penn State, they’re too talented. They’re going to make a lot of plays but we’ve got to make our fair share.
“Your goal is you want to be there. You want to continue to be there and hang in, hang in, hang in, and put yourself in a position to win in the fourth quarter.”
