Penn State’s White Out By The Numbers
No. 10 Penn State football will host its 13th full-stadium White Out Saturday when it takes on No. 22 Auburn at Beaver Stadium.
In the prior 12 White Out games, Penn State owns a 6-6 record, including a 31-10 win over Notre Dame in the first-ever full stadium White Out back in 2007.
While the whole stadium has only worn white 12 times, there’s been four additional student-section White Outs. The student-section White Outs took place in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2010. Penn State has a 2-2 record in student-section White Out games. Later this season, Penn State will host its fifth-ever student-section White Out when it plays Michigan on November 13.
Coming into this year’s White Out, the Nittany Lions have faced a non-conference opponent just twice in the big game. Other than previously mentioned Notre Dame, Penn State lost to No. 3 Alabama 27-11 in 2011.
Penn State’s most frequent opponents in full-stadium White Out games are none other than Michigan and Ohio State. While the Nittany Lions played Michigan twice and Ohio State once in student-section White Out games, they’ve played both the Wolverines and Buckeyes four times each in full White Outs.
The Nittany Lions are 1-3 against Ohio State and 3-1 against Michigan in those eight games. Overall, including student-section White Out games, Penn State is a combined 6-5 against its two Big Ten foes.
During the 2018 White Out against Ohio State, a Beaver Stadium attendance record was set when 110,889 fans poured into the stadium. The second-highest attendance record was set the previous year in the 2017 White Out against Michigan. That day, 110,823 fans showed up at Beaver Stadium.
Penn State has had two White Out games go to overtime. Ironically, they were in back-to-back years when the Nittany Lions beat Michigan 43-40 in 2013 and lost to Ohio State 31-24 in 2014.
Believe it or not, Penn State has won back-to-back White Out games just twice in its history. Joe Paterno’s squad took down Notre Dame and Illinois in 2007 and 2008, respectively, while James Franklin’s team beat Ohio State and Michigan in 2016 and 2017, too.
Penn State’s widest margin of victory in a White Out game came in 2017 when it beat Michigan 42-13. The program’s largest defeat came in a 27-11 loss against Alabama in 2011.
To no one’s surprise, ESPN’s College GameDay is coming to Happy Valley for this year’s White Out. This will mark the fourth straight White Out Kirk Herbstreit and the gang have attended. The GameDay crew also came to last year’s game against Ohio State, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no fans in the stands, therefore no White Out.
In the Nittany Lions’ 12 official full-stadium White Out games, they have outscored their opponents 316-298. Not too bad, huh?
Once. That’s the number of times Michigan had to call a timeout before the first play of the White Out because Beaver Stadium was just too damn loud while Sheck Wes’s “Mo Bamba” blasted through the stadium.
Lastly, it was at the 2016 White Out where Ohio State kicker Tyler Durbin was labeled “super reliable inside of 40.” Well, you know the rest, folks.
Penn State football’s official Auburn game notes were used to find information for this post.
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