Penn State head football coach James Franklin acknowledges that the atmosphere at Milan Puskar Stadium is a significant challenge for visiting teams.
During his interview on the Cover 3 Podcast at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday, Franklin was asked about his expectations for the upcoming season and emphasized the difficulty of the Week 1 road game at Morgantown. The August 31st matchup between West Virginia and Penn State has been marked as a key non-conference game for the 2024 season and will feature the FOX Big Noon pre-game show.
Franklin has had two separate stints as an assistant coach at Maryland (2000-2004 and 2008-2010) and has coached in four games at Milan Puskar Stadium, with his teams posting a 1-3 record, including a 31-17 loss to West Virginia in 2010. Historically, West Virginia is 7-17-1 at home against Penn State, with their last home game against the Nittany Lions occurring in 1992, resulting in a 40-26 loss for WVU.
Franklin remarked on the challenging environment at Milan Puskar Stadium, saying, “We open in a great venue. I was at the University of Maryland, and we played at West Virginia a bunch of times—that’s a tough place to play.”
He also praised the strong support for WVU, highlighting that the lack of professional sports teams in West Virginia leads to intense focus and enthusiasm for the Mountaineers. Franklin acknowledged this as a factor that contributes to the challenging atmosphere, describing it as a “hornet’s nest” that his team will be entering.
Despite his less-than-stellar record against West Virginia at Milan Puskar Stadium, Franklin secured a decisive 38-15 win over the Mountaineers at Beaver Stadium last year. He recognizes that the team he faced in Week 1 last year showed significant improvement by the end of the season and will likely present a tougher challenge in 2024.
“They ended the season on a real positive note,” Franklin noted.
Cover 3 Podcast host Chip Patterson also mentioned that the Mountaineers seem to be developing a “quiet confidence” within their program. Nevertheless, Franklin believes that previous early-season road games have been beneficial in preparing his team for challenging environments.
“I think our [2022] opening games at Auburn, even at Purdue to open the season, were tough games,” Franklin said. “So I think those things helped prepare us for this.”