How Ohio State Can Overcome Raucous 'White Out' Atmosphere in Happy Valley

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In the seven road games that he's played in his young college career, Joey Bosa has seen much of the same: a lot of empty seats and a lot of scarlet and gray filling the spaces in the stands that were occupied.

This is what makes this weekend so special to the Ohio State sophomore defensive end.

Never one to shy away from the moment, Bosa said that he's excited to head to Happy Valley, where Penn State possesses one of the few atmospheres comparable to the friendly confines of Ohio Stadium.

"We play in front of 108,000 people every weekend," Bosa said on Wednesday. "It kind of sucks when we go away and they don't have an environment like that."

More times than not throughout his college career, that's been the case for Bosa. If you were to go through a list of the away games that he has taken part in over the past season-and-a-half, the most memorable likely came at Northwestern a year ago, where Ohio State picked up a win over the Wildcats in front of an audience of 47,330 in Evanston, Illinois.

More than twice as many fans will witness the prime-time matchup between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions this weekend, with Beaver Stadium possessing a capacity of 107,282.

Add in that this is Penn State's annual White Out game, and Bosa will undoubtedly get what he asked for—playing in front of one of the most hostile environments in all of college football.

"This is one of those that's really one of those top five places in the country," Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said. "It's hard to get ready for this one."

Meyer's voice didn't contain the same enthusiasm as Bosa's when speaking of State College, perhaps because it's an environment he's already experienced.

In 2012, the Nittany Lions jumped out to a 7-0 lead over the Buckeyes on a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown in front of a raucous crowd witnessing two teams who had been ruled ineligible for postseason play. 

Ohio State would go on to win that game by a score of 35-23 on the legs of 134 rushing yards and two touchdowns from star quarterback Braxton Miller.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

That night, however, sticks out in the mind of Meyer for reasons more than his own team's impressive performance.

"That was an incredible atmosphere, which is a credit to Penn State's fans," Meyer said. "I've been in some national championship games, and you can't say they played any less on that day at Penn State two years ago. I have a lot of respect for it."

Like many other battles between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions in Happy Valley, that too was a White Out—the first of which took place in 2005. On that night, Troy Smith's Ohio State squad fell to a Tamba Hali-led Penn State team, effectively slamming the door on the Buckeyes' national championship aspirations.

Current Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson was on the sideline for the Nittany Lions that night, as he was for every other White Out game that's been played in PSU history.

An 18-year assistant with the Nittany Lions, Johnson admitted that there's something different about Beaver Stadium when the lights turn on at night.

"Our players, they went to another notch when they got to play in front of 108,000, White Out, those kind of things," Johnson said. "It will be loud. We count on it being loud."

This is why artificial noise has filled the practice fields outside of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in the days leading up to the Buckeyes' trip to Happy Valley. Those same sounds were noticeably absent when Ohio State was preparing for its two previous road games this season, visits to Baltimore and College Park to take on Navy and Maryland, respectively.

Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images

As Meyer explained, the simulated crowd noise is aimed to aid Ohio State's offensive line. Whereas the quarterback deals with hand signals and receivers move based on the ball, it's the front five that's most affected by a deafening crowd like the one that Penn State presents.

"It's the communication," Meyer said. "The silly penalties, the five-yard [false start] penalties—a lot of times it goes on the center cadence. We've been decent at it."

As Johnson has learned from his time in State College, there are also other ways to overcome the noise of the Nittany Lions faithful.

"The best way to block the noise out is score points and play great defense," Johnson said. "If you do that, it will be pretty quiet."

That's what the Buckeyes—even Bosa—are counting on.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbtats.com and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.