If you’ve ever wonder who came up with the idea to play “Kernkraft 400” (aka “Zombie Nation”) following big plays, or who thought that a full stadium white-out would be a good idea, then this post is for you. Guido D’Elia, Director of  Communications and Branding for Penn State football, is one of the primary reasons why Penn State has “the Greatest Show in College Football”.

Guido D’Elia has been credited with reviving the Penn State football experience that had grown stagnant during the dark times that were the early 2000’s. Combine poor football squads with a dull stadium experience and you have unhappy fans as well as unimpressed recruits. Because of this, Penn State hired Guido D’Elia and his team, Mind Over Media, to reinvent the Beaver Stadium experience. D’Elia and his team started changing the songs played before and during the games to pump up the fans, they created the now infamous Gladiator video, and they just completed a complete redesign of the gopsf.com website.

The new gopsf.com website is unique among college football website in that it incorporates social media into the website heavily. The site draws Twitter updates from Coaches Jay Paterno and Tom Bradley, it allows users to submit their Flickr pictures to be included on the site, as well as a host of other features that aim to give the user an all-access look into Penn State football.

He may have rubbed a few of the alumni the wrong way when he tried to change up the stadium atmosphere a few years back, but now it’s hard to argue now that Guido D’Elia and his team haven’t been major contributors to Penn State being “The Greatest Show in College Football”.

[NYTimes.com]

[BlackShoeDiaries.com]

[Photo Credit]