When Dan Lanning's sixth-ranked Oregon marches into Beaver Stadium to face second-ranked Penn State, it'll be met with the roar of 106,572 strong, all combining into one crescendo to create one of the toughest road environments in the country.

But Lanning has devised a practice ploy, one he somewhat reluctantly endures, to deal with the din in University Park, Pa..

"It'll play. It'll play a couple times," Lanning said of the 2017 rap song "Mo Bamba" by American rapper Sheck Wes. "We'll do everything we can to be prepared for that environment. For sure—I don't love that song."

What's the significance of "Mo Bamba" and Penn State? The song blared through the Beaver Stadium speakers during a 2019 game between Michigan and Penn State, which held a home White Out game, sending the crowd into a frenzy and forcing the Wolverines to burn a timeout on the first play from scrimmage.

So, it's a safe bet that "Mo Bamba" will be a part of the song rotation, especially with another home White Out planned on Saturday. But Penn State coach James Franklin has visions of going above and beyond the ear-splitting noise the home crowd generated six years ago.

"We need this place rocking," Franklin said Monday. "Need to have a distinct home-field advantage. I'm expecting this to be an environment like no one has ever seen—we want to make it clearly obvious to everybody what the most challenging environment to play in is, in all of sports, let alone college football.

"I know a good portion of our fans like to sit down, except for third downs, the red zone, and what they consider critical times of the game. This is a four-quarter, one play at a time game that we need to be on our feet, screaming a collective battle cry in the stadium. So we're going to need everybody's help."

Oregon and Penn State is a rematch of last year's Big Ten title game, won 45–37 by the Ducks. The highly anticipated game, which has major College Football Playoff implications, kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.

More College Football on Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s new college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Oregon's Preparation for Penn State Included Reluctant Practice Ploy by Dan Lanning .

Test hyperlink for boilerplate