It’s almost that time, folks.

Penn State football is set to take on No. 6 Oregon in the 2025 White Out on Saturday, September 27. With what is shaping up to be one of the most highly anticipated White Out games in history, Penn State’s defense is focused on blocking out the noise and getting out in front of Oregon quickly.

Oregon’s game largely revolves around its quick starts on offense, which James Franklin and multiple Nittany Lions highlighted as the main task that Penn State will try and thwart on Saturday.

Through four games to open the 2025 season, Oregon has posted a staggering 203 points, with 117 of those coming in the first half. The Ducks waste no time putting their foot on the gas, and once they’re on, they don’t come off.

For starters, Franklin spent a lot of time outlining Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, wide receiver Dakorien Moore, and tight end Kenyon Sadiq at his weekly press conference on Monday. He emphasized the high level that all three have played at so far this season, and even referred back to Penn State’s recruitment of Moore as a five-star quarterback out of high school.

When comparing Moore to last year’s Oregon starting quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, Franklin said that Moore is a little bit more mobile, but nothing much has changed. Gabriel led the Ducks to a Big Ten title win over Penn State in December, where he completed 22 of 32 passing attempts for 283 yards and four touchdowns.

Defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton broke down Moore and the Oregon offense as a whole even further.

“Obviously, they’re a great team, so they’re going to find ways to make plays. But yeah, obviously they’ve got players everywhere,” Dennis-Sutton said. “O-line, running back, receiver, obviously quarterback. And they’re explosive as well. I think they’ve been putting 40, 50 points a game. We take it as a challenge. They got pieces everywhere, so we just got to keep our A-game.”

Dennis-Sutton mentioned how Penn State learned a lot about Oregon through last year’s Big Ten championship game. He noted that the Ducks utilized a lot of hurry-up offense in the contest, and Penn State is expecting that among other tendencies on Saturday.

Franklin compared Sadiq to Tyler Warren’s role in the Penn State offense a season ago, referring to him as a “matchup problem.” He followed up with a deeper dive into Moore’s explosiveness at receiver and his importance to the team despite his true freshman status.

“What I’ve seen on film is an explosive offense. Dante [Moore] can get the ball anywhere on the field. They got explosive receivers. They athletic. Much of that doesn’t really matter,” safety Zakee Wheatley said of the Ducks on Tuesday. “What matters really is how we approach this week practicing, go about practicing.”

Wheatley expanded upon Sadiq’s importance within the Oregon offense. He said he’s extremely versatile and is the glue that holds the Ducks together on that side of the ball. Sadiq can wiggle his way into space and Dan Lanning and Co. can draw up many different looks for him, but Wheatley is confident in the secondary’s ability to reel him in and prevent losing control of the game early.

Linebacker Amare Campbell and cornerback A.J. Harris echoed a similar sentiment after practice on Wednesday regarding Oregon’s offense as a whole. They both emphasized the Nittany Lions’ need to keep Oregon in front of them and not let any plays zoom beyond their heads. Campbell said the defense can’t let the fast guys behind them, and that physicality will play an even larger role against the Ducks.

Campbell also noted that the fact that Jim Knowles played the Ducks twice last season en route to a national championship win with Ohio State has been crucial to Penn State’s preparation for the massive matchup. Knowles said last week that Oregon’s offense will make teams pay for mistakes as simple as certain guys not lined up in the right spot, immediately sinking its chances before it even gets a shot.

Harris expressed a lot of trust in Knowles for his preparation of the defensive unit ahead of the Ducks despite Oregon’s dynamic wide receiver group. He said that Knowles has provided “everything needed” for the defense to have a good understanding of how to stop Oregon from getting another quick start on the Nittany Lions.

Franklin acknowledged the difficulty that Oregon brings in the fact that it just has so many weapons ready to hurt and run rampant all over Penn State at its disposal. However, he said that the fact that the Nittany Lions battle against each other day in and day out in practice is a true advantage to prepare for a team like Oregon.

Even then, Franklin and Co. are prepared to bring out all the stops to make sure Oregon doesn’t jump out to a large lead as it’s been accustomed to so far this season.

“It’s kind of a fine line and a balance between attacking with all your best stuff that you’ve had a week to get ready for. And it’s also ‘are they playing how we expected them to play?'” Franklin said. “Sometimes, they’re going to throw things out there as tendency-breakers to make you second-guess. But then, most people after they do that, they go back to what they do best, right? There’s that little bit of the feeling-out period to start the game, but I think everybody’s at their best when you’re in attack mode.”

One of the ways Franklin specifically says the defense can halt Oregon’s offense early in the game is by emphasizing the third-down game. The Penn State defense has been efficient so far this season in defending against third down, only allowing 16 of 46 first down conversions, good for around 35%. However, the Nittany Lions will have to sharpen that number up against the Ducks’ explosive offense if they want to keep pace with Oregon down the stretch.

Oregon’s third-down efficiency currently stands at around 58%, which is a big jump from what Penn State managed to do against Nevada, FIU, and Villanova.

Franklin, however, knows the biggest weapon that Penn State has up its sleeve is the White Out crowd. He urged fans to be the true instrument of destruction for the Oregon offense ahead of Penn State’s marquee home matchup of the 2025 season.

“I’m challenging everybody. This is a four-quarter, one-play-at-a-time, first, second down, third down, fourth down, punts, kickoff coverage, that we need to be on our feet screaming a collective battle cry in the stadium,” Franklin said. “We’re going to need everybody’s help.”