The Penn State football faithful have long rattled opposing offenses with a deafening decibel level, forcing miscommunications and often pre-snap penalties or timeouts. But disrupting the Nittany Lion defense? That’s a new one.

Following Penn State’s season-opening victory over Marshall, linebacker and green-dot bearer Kooper Ebel spoke about playing in front of an energetic Beaver Stadium crowd.

“It’s awesome, but it’s obviously difficult playing defense at home just because of how loud our fans are, trying to disrupt their offense and stuff,” Ebel said. “That’s a challenge that we’re going to continue to work on, but it’s a great challenge, and we love it. You can hear it in my voice.”

Last week, Penn State suffered a catastrophic collapse, blowing a 17-0 lead to lose 24-20 to Wisconsin. While the offense is mostly to blame for the team’s failures, lapses in defensive communication due to crowd noise persisted.

On the final drive of the game, the Badgers were guilty of two false starts, both aided by a raucous student section.

The sequence was also Penn State’s worst defensive effort of the contest, as it surrendered 85 yards in just over a minute.

Wisconsin turned 2nd-and-19 into a first down and converted 3rd-and-13 into a long touchdown.

“It’s a good and a bad thing,” defensive tackle Keanu Williams said about the noise. “It’s something we got to learn how to just communicate and be on point with each other at all times.”

Penn State practices with artificial fan audio, common for Division I programs, especially those that consistently play in hostile environments.

But Williams admits that cranking up the volume to put the team in more “stressful” situations will be necessary.

Despite the team’s communication struggles, both Matt Campbell and the players urge Penn Staters to keep up their noisy ways.

Beaver Stadium is one of the most unique environments in all of sports, and the advantage it provides is certainly net-positive.

“It’s a tribute to our fan base,” Campbell said. “I think we talked about being disappointed internally. I think equally we’re disappointed that, you know, we let our fan base, who did such an incredible job for us on Saturday, down.”

Linebacker Alex Tatsch echoed his head coach’s sentiment, relishing any chance to play in a Big Ten environment.

The young linebacker, who recorded his first sack in Penn State’s win over Buffalo, is working hard to make sure those fans have reason to cheer.

“We love our fans, man. The more noise, the better,” Tatsch said.

At the end of the day, defensive communication starts with Ebel, the man who receives the calls through his in-helmet radio. The Wisconsin game was the senior linebacker’s most successful stat-wise, and his teammates have full confidence in Ebel’s leadership capabilities.

From setting the tone with his physicality to ensuring his teammates are on the same page before the play, Ebel’s voice will remain important as Penn State irons out the kinks of playing in rowdy environments.

“[Ebel is] great to play with,” Tatsch said. “Whenever I’m in there with him, he makes sure I’m good. He makes sure we learn everything pre-snap. He’s the perfect guy you want advice from, or the guy to lead your defense.”