As much as any single game in college football,

the Penn State whiteout is a spectacle. This year’s

edition — Penn State-Michigan on Saturday night

— was announced way back in April, when college

football is the last thing on most fans’ minds.

The announcement wasn’t much of a surprise.

The Nittany Lions have been holding whiteouts

since 2004, and Saturday’s will be their sixth

against Michigan, the most of any team.

For home fans, the whiteout is a way of life. The

stadium is surrounded by open fields and parking

lots, perfect for huge tailgates and RV parks.

Fans buy into the experience. Their dedication to

wearing white combined with a metal stadium

that shakes under the weight of more than

100,000 screaming fans makes it an imposing

experience for away teams and fans.

But for those away fans, it’s also an experience

rarely matched by any other in the sport — for

better or for worse. The Daily spoke with seven

Michigan fans who have attended whiteout games

to get a picture of what a whiteout is like from an

outsider’s perspective.

THE ATMOSPHERE

Most people interviewed said that the whiteout

was unlike anything they’ve seen at Michigan

Stadium, perhaps with the exception of the first

“Under the Lights” game in 2011. Penn State is

located two-and-a-half hours from Pittsburgh,

the closest city, and it’s hard for casual fans to get

to — so those that come are the diehards, and the

whiteout game is the crown jewel of every season.

The diehards all buy in.

Kelly Heller, attended in 2013: When you walk

into the stadium, you can’t miss it.

Zack Kessler, attended in 2013 and 2017: This

is gonna sound dumb, but it is very white. It is

astoundingly white.

Brendan Warren, attended in 2017: I was

the only one not wearing white in the entire

student section. Actually, there was one other

guy in yellow. But out of like 20,000 in that whole

section, it was all white.

Steve Rosenberger, attended in 2010 and

2017: The first game wasn’t as hyped up … because

it wasn’t an undefeated ranked matchup like the

one I went to two years ago. But Penn State kind of

got better at the whiteouts since then.

Ken Davidoff, attended in 2015: I didn’t

know about the whiteout until I showed up at the

stadium. It’s actually very funny because I had a

white Michigan golf shirt, like a polo shirt. Just

having no idea about the whiteout.

Warren: I was getting booed the entire time.

Davidoff: (Penn State fans) were turning to

high-five me and I would pull my zipper down

and show them the block ‘M,’ the blue ‘M,’ and

they were like … ‘What are you doing? It’s a

whiteout! Why are you wearing a white Michigan

shirt?’ And I laughed, I said ‘I’m a wolf in sheep’s

clothing, I didn’t know about the whiteout.’

Dan Mickelson, attended in 2010 and 2017: If

you go to a night game in Ann Arbor, life is still

going on outside the game. But everyone in Happy

Valley is wearing white except for the away fans

there for that game.

Heller: It’s something that I’ve never seen

Michigan pull off. … Even a maize out, people

wear gray, people wear white, people wear blue.

There was not a person 90 years old or an infant

that wasn’t wearing white.

Rosenberger: When I was there two years ago,

the fireworks got amped up and the rock music

gets turned up. … They do it to a point where it

takes a bunch of inauthentic things, combines it

and it kind of becomes something authentic just

by, they’re not apologetic about it.

THE GAME

The Wolverines haven’t had much luck in

whiteout games, losing three of the five matchups.

Though Michigan won in 2006 and 2015, the

matchups it lost were perhaps more memorable. In

2010, the Nittany Lions won, 41-31, in a shootout.

Jack Warner, attended in 2010: We were sort

of licking our chops the whole time, the whole

drive out there, and we were pretty optimistic

that this was gonna be Rich Rod’s signature win

and this was gonna jump-start the program. And

obviously that’s not how it turned out.

In 2013, Brendan Gibbons missed three field goals

en route to a 43-40, quadruple-overtime loss.

Heller: For (Penn State) it’s the best part.

For anybody else it’s the worst part, is that the

students come in early, they stay until the end,

and their goalposts are white. So at night, when

they’re behind the goalposts and they’re going for

a field goal, the students start swaying and you

can’t see the goalposts.

Mickelson: It’s hard to go into a stadium like

that. … I was a student manager back in ‘07 so I

know you can’t replicate that in practice. There’s

no way to pump in noise like that and prepare a

team for an away game like that.

Heller: I fully believe, obviously if they were at

home, they would’ve totally won. But if not for the

whiteout … they would’ve made those field goals.

And in 2017, Saquon Barkley ran for 121 yards,

cutting through the Wolverines’ defense in a 42-13

blowout.

Warren: (Michigan) started the game on

defense, so everyone was silent. Dead silent. And

I was just screaming because we were on defense,

and then Saquon Barkley scored very quickly and

that kinda shut me up.

Mickelson: From our vantage point, (Barkley)

was running towards us. It was just wild to see the

whole place shake.

The environment provides what many believe

is a built-in advantage for the Nittany Lions.

Rosenberger: I don’t think it (affected) as

much for Denard (Robinson), because they were

used to going no-huddle all the time and Rich

Rod’s teams … called their plays in with hand

signals from the sideline. But when you’re trying

to huddle up, the sound is of another — it’s even

louder than any other stadium I’ve been to.

Warner: We’ve seen better Michigan teams go

into Penn State in a similar environment and win,

like in 2015. … I think the impact of the crowd is

often overstated, and that’s often especially the

case with Penn State because I think the whiteout

is more a marketing scheme than an actual

difference maker on the football field.

Rosenberger: They make the whiteout their

biggest game of the year, so they see it as an

advantage, and they move it around. They use it as

a weapon.

FILE PHOTO / DAILY DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN

Whiteout

What it’s like to attend the

ARIA GERSON
Senior Sports Editor

It’s something that I’ve
never seen Michigan
pull off

Read more at
MichiganDaily.com