Marshall head coach Tony Gibson knows exactly what kind of stage his team is walking into Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
He’s been there before - as an assistant at Michigan in 2010 - and he remembers the place as “loud” and “very cold.” This time, he’s hoping the experience is “little bit different.”
That doesn’t mean Gibson is downplaying the challenge. Far from it.
The second-year Marshall coach spent Tuesday laying out just how much Penn State has on tape, how much his staff has studied, and how much his players are about to be asked to handle in front of a crowd of 107,000.
Marshall has been digging through film from multiple angles to get ready for the opener at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Gibson said his staff has watched a ton of Iowa State because of Coach [Matt Campbell]’s ties there and because “there’s 25 guys that followed him to Penn State,” including pieces of the offense like wide receivers, tight ends, the running back and the quarterback. On the other side of the ball, Marshall has studied USC, while also breaking down Penn State itself to get a read on the players who stayed put.
“We’ve watched USC on the [defensive] side of the ball. We’ve watched Iowa State on the [offensive] side of the ball, and then we’ve watched Penn State for the guys returning just to get their skill sets, what they are.
A couple of the offensive linemen stayed, their tight ends stayed. Then defensively, they got a bunch of guys that stayed there with them.”
That film work, Gibson said, gives Marshall a solid sense of what might be coming - but only up to a point. He made it clear the Thundering Herd will need to adjust once the game starts if Penn State shows something different from what they’ve been preparing for.
One of the biggest hurdles, though, won’t be schematic. It’ll be the environment. Gibson framed the game as a rare chance for his players to step into a setting they don’t get every week, and he believes plenty of them think they belong on that kind of stage.
“Our kids get to experience something that we don’t get to see every week. We get to go play in front of 107,000.
It’s their first game. I’m sure it’s going to be packed.
It’s going to be loud. And a lot of our guys think that they ought to be playing at that level.
So they’re going to get their opportunity, and it’s a great opportunity for us to showcase who we are.”
Gibson also had plenty to say about Penn State quarterback Rocco Becht, and the praise came fast. He called Becht “a great football player and a great kid,” then pointed to the things that stand out right away: intelligence, toughness, poise, and a quarterback who stays within the structure of the offense and knows how to use the pieces around him.
“He’s a coach’s son. He’s tough, and he stays within the scheme.
He uses his weapons. He knows where to go with the football, and he’s very poised.
He’s a fifth year guy that’s played a lot of football and won a lot of big games, so he’s an impressive young man, and I hope he plays really well for 11 games, and doesn’t play real well this week.”
Becht’s legs are part of the problem too. Gibson said he’s “sneaky with that,” and noted that Penn State will use him on quarterback draw looks and in other designed run situations. What makes that even more difficult, in Gibson’s view, is the continuity around him - the same head coach, offensive line coach and coordinator all traveling together.
Penn State’s defense earned just as much respect from Gibson, especially linebacker Tony Rojas, whom he recruited previously when he was a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at NC State. Gibson called Rojas “a really, really good player” and “legit,” then pointed to the size up front, the returning experience and the staff working behind them.
He mentioned the D-linemen Penn State got from UCLA when Coach [D’Anton] Lynn was there before USC, and he singled out the coaching on that side of the ball as elite. Gibson also said he’s known Penn State’s linebackers coach from a previous stop, and has known Terry Smith for a long time.
“I don’t know their defensive coordinator, Coach Lynn, but you watch his work, and he’s been in the NFL, he’s been at USC, UCLA, and he’s been productive everywhere he’s been. So a lot of respect for those guys, and again they’re going to test us on what they do, and they’re going to challenge us, and we’re going to have to stay on blocks.”
Back at practice, Marshall is trying to prepare for the noise as best it can. Gibson said the staff cranks the speakers as loud as possible to simulate the crowd, and Thursday will bring another indoor session with crowd noise pumped in for the offense. Still, he acknowledged there’s only so much preparation can do until the players are actually in that setting.
“We try to simulate crowd noise, but it’s hard. We play the speakers as loud as we can get it.
But to put a kid in that setting, when he knows he’s on national TV, 107 [thousand] in the stadium, loud, is just different. So we try to do the best we can.
We’ll go indoors with our offense on Thursday and pump in some crowd noise and try to get them ready for it. But until they’re really out there doing it [it’s tough].”
In Other News...
Penn States Backup QB Is Forcing His Way Into The Offense
Alex Manskes path back to the field has already made him one of the more compelling stories around Penn State as the season opener against Marshall approaches. After recovering from open heart surgery, the backup quarterback is now expected to be available, and offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser has made it clear Manske is not just along for the ride. His talent and versatility have put him in position to matter on offense right away, which says plenty about how quickly he has worked himself back into the conversation.
Rocco Becht has noticed the progress, too, and the starting quarterbacks confidence in Manske only adds to the sense that this could become more than a depth-chart note. For Penn State, having a reserve quarterback who can handle real snaps and potentially expand what the offense can do is a useful development before the first kickoff even arrives. The bigger question now is how large a role Manske can carve out once the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Fans Just Got A Tough NFL Cutdown Reality Check
The NFL preseason wrapped up with several former Penn State standouts making their case in the final weeks, and a few of them gave teams plenty to think about before cutdown day. Sean Clifford even threw a touchdown for the Cincinnati Bengals, while Dani Dennis-Sutton flashed with his first NFL sack for the Green Bay Packers and Dom DeLuca finished his preseason stint by leading the Baltimore Ravens in tackles. For Penn State fans, it was the kind of late-August run that reminded them how many familiar names are trying to carve out roles on pro rosters.
The final decisions still landed hard. Clifford was waived by Cincinnati as the Bengals opted to keep two quarterbacks, and DeLuca did not stick in Baltimore despite his tackle total. On the wide receiver front, the Los Angeles Chargers kept KeAndre Lambert-Smith on the roster, while Liam Clifford and Devonte Ross came up short, a mixed outcome that left Penn States NFL following with both a few wins to celebrate and a few disappointments to absorb. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Just Reopened One Of Its Most Sensitive Football Debates
Penn State Athletics is opening a new stop inside the All-Sports Museum at Beaver Stadium this week, and it is one sure to draw attention well beyond the usual campus crowd. The Paterno Family Football Experience Room will open to the public Thursday, giving visitors a closer look at one of the most complicated eras in the programs history through Joe Paternos original office desk, personal artifacts and a timeline of his Penn State legacy, along with other football history displays.
The room is being presented as part of a broader effort to preserve and tell the story of Penn State football, which means the museum is not just adding another exhibit but revisiting a name that still carries real weight in Happy Valley. For fans, alumni and anyone who follows the program closely, the space figures to become a focal point because it puts the schools most recognizable football figure back in the center of the conversation, even as the larger debate around how that history should be remembered remains unresolved. [Read more 🡒]