House of Pain’s “Jump Around” blared on the speakers over Penn State football’s practice field as the media waited outside for the typical Wednesday practice viewing session.

The song, which is played at the end of the third quarter to get the Wisconsin crowd moving, was followed up by the Wisconsin fight song, “On, Wisconsin.”

It was nothing new. Crowd noise, bands, and other songs are loudly played at practice often when preparing for not only an away game but the noise in Beaver Stadium, too.

This week, though, Penn State is set to head to Madison, Wisconsin, to take on the Badgers inside Camp Randall Stadium. The Badger’s home stadium holds 80,321, the seventh-largest stadium in the Big Ten.

On top of the atmosphere, Wisconsin is on an upward trajectory. After dropping two games to Alabama and USC, the Badgers have scored an average of 39 points per game over their last three contests, beating Purdue, Rutgers, and Northwestern by a combined score of 117-16. The Nittany Lions are in for another test.

“We’re expecting a hell of an environment,” James Franklin said Wednesday. “But I think it’s exactly like how we’ve done it for every road game this season all the back to West Virginia.”

With the Badgers finding their footing in the run game over the last three contests, the Penn State defensive line is preparing for a tough battle up front.

Facing a team averaging 194 rushing yards per game doesn’t have the group, which is only allowing 95 rushing yards per game, overly concerned.

Defensive edge Dani Dennis-Sutton was looking forward to the opportunity to square off with a tough team but remained focused on the task at hand.

“They’re a regular team, I’m not too worried about it, and I don’t think our D-line was extremely worried about it,” Dennis-Sutton said. “They have a good running back, good quarterback, good O-line. But we’re not going to make it anything bigger than what it is: our next opponent.”

That next opponent, though, is riding a hot streak as Penn State heads into a hostile, prime-time environment. While the line is confident it can handle the players on the field, it also believes the routines in practice help take the environment out of the picture.

While playing in Beaver Stadium is the best preparation for playing in other deafening stadiums, defensive tackle Coziah Izzard said the noise during practice makes gameday communication cleaner. Izzard was a freshman for Penn State football’s 16-10 win over Wisconsin in 2021 and, from what he remembered, believes the team is more than able to take care of business in Madison Saturday night.

“It definitely helps during practice,” Izzard said. “Especially on the defense with the linebacker giving calls, having that crowd noise in the background really helps us focus.”

Even after hearing “Jump Around” multiple times at practice on Wednesday, Izzard said he’s not sick of hearing it quite yet. In fact, the tradition that shakes the foundation of Camp Randall Stadium at the end of every third quarter may also get the Penn State sideline amped, too.

“Looking forward to hearing it on Saturday,” Izzard said. “But we’re also going to be jumping.”