This week, OBD will face a harrowing task going into white out conditions at Beaver Stadium for a prime time, Top 5 battle with Penn St. This venue should not be underestimated in a way that Ohio St. appeared to have underestimated Autzen last year.

The question I have is whether this Saturday will be the toughest road environment the Ducks have ever played in? I think it could be.

There is bound to be some recency bias, but here are some potential previous candidates and reasons why I don't think they reach the level of this Saturday:

1) Anything prior to the 1990's - were the Ducks ever good enough to command the attention of a frothing fanbase like a Top 5 battle warrants? Did fans froth prior to 1990's like they do today? (Just kidding - I know they did). Also, I'm looking for good Duck teams where it was clear the venue affected their play and they weren't just overmatched.

2) Any Pac-8/10/12 venue. I have to be careful here, because if I discount Pac-12 venues, it throws some shade on Autzen as well. We all know smaller stadiums can still affect games in significant ways. There have been some wildly difficult conference road games like Washington (2023), Arizona (2009, 2013), Utah (every night game), Arizona St. (every night game), Cal or USC in early 2000's, or Washington St. (2018). But do any of them rise to the level of Beaver Stadium this Saturday?

3) Michigan (2007, 2024) and Tennessee (2010) - these are two of the largest venues the Ducks have played in, but the games ended up being uncompetitive and it turned out the teams were going in different directions.

4) Nebraska (2016), Michigan St. (2015), Boise St. (2009), Oklahoma (2004) - All tough road losses.

5) "Neutral" Site Games - Auburn in the natty (2010-2011), LSU (2011), Auburn (2019), Ohio St. in the natty (2014-2015), Georgia (2022) all proved to be virtual road environments, but not quite at the level of playing in Death Valley or Athens.

6) Ohio St. (2021) - We all have to admit that Ohio St. fans were not quite awake for this game. We came in under the RADAR, took the crowd out early and earned an awesome road win.

Are there any other candidates for the toughest Duck road environment ever?

Fusky Stadium isnt exactly friendly to the Ducks.

Depends on the outcome, the environment doesn’t seem as tough when you win. Hard to quantify what makes something tough, but we have no shortage of appearances in some of the toughest venues.

That being said of the most cited top-10 toughest places to play (which includes Beaver stadium) we’ve actually only played at Ohio Stadium and Autzen to date. So Beaver stadium should be in the running.

Two not listed in most lists that are very tough when the teams are good IMO are Martin and Husky stadium.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by JabbaNoBargain

Penn State's record in White Out games is 12-8. PSU has won the last five games. No wins over a top 10 opponent in the last five.

With the new media deal, PSU does not always play the opponent they want to play in a White Out. 2024 saw the game vs. Ohio State as the Big Noon game. Ohio State was the WO game PSU wanted to play. Instead, the WO was against Washington.

The five straight WO wins include last season's PO win against SMU.

James Franklin and PSU's biggest WO win came in 2016 when the Nits defeated Ohio State 24-21. Two-loss PSU won the B1G that season, but one-loss Ohio State was chosen for the PO. Ohio State was mugged by Clemson. Penn State was beaten by USC in the Rose Bowl, 52-49, Clay Helton's SC high-water mark.

PSU got what it wanted this season. A WO game vs. top 10 Oregon. James Franklin's record vs. top 10 teams is 4-20. 1-15 against top 5-ranked teams, with the win coming over Ohio State in 2016.

I doubt that the WO crowd on Saturday will be louder than what OBD has experienced in Seattle and Salt Lake City before the game turned into a blowout vs. Utah.

Big Ten coaches voted Beaver Stadium as the loudest in the conference. Josh Pate, among many others, not caring about giving the nod to newbie OBD, ranks Autzen No. 1.

10 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

Big Ten coaches voted Beaver Stadium as the loudest in the conference. Josh Pate, among many others, not caring about giving the nod to newbie OBD, ranks Autzen No. 1.

I'm glad we don't have to play us at Autzen 😄

Yes, there have been some wild environments in our old conference. Fans can cause the home team to get frisky and turn what should be easy games into nightmares.

15 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

Penn State's record in White Out games is 12-8. PSU has won the last five games. No wins over a top 10 opponent in the last five.

With the new media deal, PSU does not always play the opponent they want to play in a White Out. 2024 saw the game vs. Ohio State as the Big Noon game. Ohio State was the WO game PSU wanted to play. Instead, the WO was against Washington.

The five straight WO wins include last season's PO win against SMU.

James Franklin and PSU's biggest WO win came in 2016 when the Nits defeated Ohio State 24-21. Two-loss PSU won the B1G that season, but one-loss Ohio State was chosen for the PO. Ohio State was mugged by Clemson. Penn State was beaten by USC in the Rose Bowl, 52-49, Clay Helton's SC high-water mark.

PSU got what it wanted this season. A WO game vs. top 10 Oregon. James Franklin's record vs. top 10 teams is 4-20. 1-15 against top 5-ranked teams, with the win coming over Ohio State in 2016.

I doubt that the WO crowd on Saturday will be louder than what OBD has experienced in Seattle and Salt Lake City before the game turned into a blowout vs. Utah.

Big Ten coaches voted Beaver Stadium as the loudest in the conference. Josh Pate, among many others, not caring about giving the nod to newbie OBD, ranks Autzen No. 1.

This.

The Big House isn't listed as a very difficult place to play despite it's size.

I think the white out atmosphere is likely more exciting than intimidating to the away team. Sure it's always tough on OLine communication like any loud stadium.

Also I believe the start time is to our advantage. It'll be 4:30pm to our guys while 7:30 for PSU. Their players might be looking for a cot by the 4th quarter, having not played this late in about a year.

So much like the bye week issue, the home field advantage issue isn't necessarily the big advantage it would seem on the surface. It could be a liability.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Solar

There have been 21 such white-out games dating back to 2004 (2024 had both Washington and SMU).

Penn State is:

13-8 (5 of the 8 to OSU or Michigan)

9-7 vs ranked

4-1 vs unranked

3-5 vs teams ranked top ten

Coach Franklin is 8-3 with 6-0 in last 6.  He is 2-1 vs teams in top ten in the white-out.

The white-outs are definitely games that PSU fans look forward to. And, Franklin is 6-0 in the last six.