The last two weeks have been pretty mortifying as a Penn State fan, that much is clear.

A startling 17-point blown lead to Wisconsin on Homecoming Weekend at Beaver Stadium bled into a disheartening, historically pitiful blowout loss at New Ryan Field against Northwestern last Friday.

Now, the Nittany Lions are 0-2 in Big Ten play for the second straight year.

Even worse? These losses came at an awful time, killing the external hype for a White Out that was supposed to be between two teams fighting on the College Football Playoff bubble. The defining game of the season has gone from an opportunity for Penn State to prove itself as a nationally relevant team to just trying to steady the ship of a sinking season.

It doesn’t help that USC looks really meh so far, either.

The Trojan defense has been alarmingly bad; it lost at home to a backup quarterback against Oregon, then barely survived a similarly flawed Washington team last week. Much of the juice in this game is gone.

And yet, these are the times that most test a fan base’s resolve. When one door closes, another door opens.

Instead of being the egotistical fan base that expects to be the Ohio State of the world and will boycott if it gets anything less for even one season, instead of being a fan base that is mass-selling tickets to the Greatest Show in College Sports and openly dreading it, why not embrace it?

I want you to think about this with me for a minute.

Think of the last decade of White Outs. Because of Big Noon Kickoff, Penn State was heavily favored against meh opponents recently (2024 vs. Washington, 2023 vs. Iowa, 2022 vs. Minnesota). Some were blockbuster top-10 matchups between two Big Ten contenders (2018, 2025). Some were gritty battles with Michigan (2017, 2019) and a one-off against Auburn (2021).

Do you notice anything in common among them?

Penn State was either favored or considered a close enough underdog that you could’ve reasonably expected a win in all of them. Since 2017, the largest underdog Penn State has been in a White Out is just three points against Ohio State in 2018.

Is that necessarily different in this one? No, Penn State somehow enters this game as the favorite, but something about this game is unique, and we haven’t seen it since 2016.

Penn State is unranked. It’s playing a ranked team. It’s the first time we’ve had that mix for a White Out since the Block Six revived the program in 2016.

As crazy as it sounds, this ravenous fan base, one that makes the White Out the “Greatest Show in College Sports,” is going to get an opportunity that they haven’t had in a decade.

Penn State has been the hunted for a long time. It’s been favorites in all but one or two games a season for the last decade. You want to be the hunted, so that’s not a problem at all, but there is an inherent joy of being on the other side: the hunters.

The hunters who know their noise and their environment can motivate the 105 men on their sidelines to go win a football game against a better opponent. No matter what demons surround the program, internal or external pressure, this is the game the world watches every year. It’s a spectacle in and of itself.

So, please, if you have a ticket, go to the game. If you are thinking of buying a ticket, buy one.

Get to Beaver Stadium on Saturday. Be loud. Make an impact.

Forget the last two weeks. They don’t matter as much as you think. Forget how you feel about Matt Campbell or Rocco Becht or that run defense.

For 60 minutes, all that matters is beating USC.

Fandom isn’t transactional; it’s a choice you made and one you stick with. Voice your displeasure another time.

For 60 minutes, pretend it’s the national championship. Bring the energy that made the event what it became, because, especially as a student, you only get so many of these. It’s not worth missing because you’re mad.