Penn State football put out one of its worst performances in recent memory against Northwestern on Friday.

As if that wasn’t enough pain, the Wildcats celebrated even harder as the thumping broke in New Ryan Field. The $875 million venue saw its first game and first win against Penn State.

While it was a rough night for the Nittany Lions on the gridiron, it was still cool to experience a new college football site in its inaugural contest.

We walked over to the stadium from the north parking garage on Northwestern’s campus. The stadium started to peek out from above the trees until we reached the end of the street and saw her in all her beauty for the first time.

Northwestern’s credential pickup was actually set at the baseball stadium, a good ways away from where the stadium first popped up for us.

We trotted along Ashland Ave. and got a view of the stadium from the small tailgate lots and what looked like the main entry gates. The Northwestern and American flags flew high.

Once we cleared the security gates at entry three, we got our first glimpse of the main concourse.

We circled around the bar to get a good look at the main event: the field.

It’s hard to describe what it was like to see something so significant and know you were there for the very start. The pictures don’t really do it justice. I just felt so honored to be at New Ryan Field, and the view honestly took my breath away.

We took a half-lap around the stadium as we found our way to the media entrance, then headed back down for a full twirl around the grounds.

She is a beauty.

We cut our tour a little short to get situated in the press box. We found a thankfully clearly labeled media entrance and took a smooth elevator ride up top to get what we thought would be an amazing view.

Unfortunately, the press box seating was rough. You need to literally lean all the way forward so the barrier under the window doesn’t cover the entire field. It wasn’t too big of a deal, but it did throw a wrench in the experience, especially for a brand-new stadium.

Here’s how it looked standing up in the box, though.

We explored a bit upstairs and found where the press box food would be served during the game. Stay tuned for the end of the season to see where New Ryan Field stacks up in terms of its journalist hospitality.

We headed back down to the concourse, where we were immediately met with some good ol’ Evanston hospitality.

We met Jamie, who was working at “The Great Big Ten Grillout.” She came up, said hi, talked a bit about her connection to the Ryan family (she taught Pat Ryan’s son), and we chatted about the stadium for a second.

She was really nice, and it was even cooler to pair her up with Onward State’s very own Jamie Lynch.

We said our goodbyes and continued on our trek to complete a lap around the concourse. We wanted to check out the bathroom situation and were met with some very standard results. Nothing major.

One very nice touch was the faucets, though. Very classy of these Northwestern folks.

The next thing, which was probably the true main event of the evening, was the European soccer-style student section called the Wildcat Wall.

The 2,000-seat design perched on top of the south end zone perfectly encapsulated the energy of the night.

Jamie gave the backstops a little twirl to test how loud they could get from a little kick. The press box windows were closed, so we didn’t hear it throughout the night, but we can imagine it got very, very loud. Multiply this video by 2,000.

We made our way to the student section entrance, which I think is the coolest part of the stadium. It’s designed like a Chicago train station and is just a really well-designed entry into the Wildcat Wall.

The students also received free commemorative shirts for the matchup.

“The Hunt” did indeed begin. Sigh.

We circled outwards once more on the main concourse into this grassy area with multiple cornhole stations. Perfect for some pregame festivities (especially with the lack of actual tailgate space surrounding the stadium).

Next to the cornhole station was a mural-type wall of old tickets for past Northwestern games.

Most of them were against Big Ten teams (we couldn’t find Penn State), and it felt like a nice retro touch. A “remember your roots” kind of thing that nicely juxtaposed with the venue’s grandeur.

While the entrance to the Wildcat Wall was my favorite part of the stadium, one really cool thing they implemented was nods to the rest of Northwestern’s athletic programs.

Each program has dedicated panels for its biggest wins in program history or its last major titles.

I only snagged a picture of Northwestern’s men’s soccer Big Ten title win over … Penn State in 2011.

The concourse decorations really elevated the entire experience.

They added frames of the stadium’s early construction, the old Ryan Field, and Northwestern’s Rose Bowl appearance against USC after its 1995 Big Ten title.

The last thing we checked out before heading back into the press box was the highest seats on the upper bowl. Every seat in New Ryan Field is a good seat.

Interestingly, the lower bowl seats are padded, but the upper bowl seats are not.

Still a stellar view in a stellar venue.

Northwestern’s first runout was one to remember. The pyrotechnics were on point throughout the whole game. The video board was interactive and student-focused, as it should be.

It was great to meet you, New Ryan Field. We’ll see you somewhere down the line.