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NORTHBROOK, Ill. &#8212; There was no music blasting from the practice field this week. Not for this game.Last month, Penn State had prepared for its trip to the Horseshoe by busting out the Spinal Tap amplifiers during practice for defending national champ Ohio State.For Saturday&#8217;s game at Northwestern? Silence.&#8220;This week in practice I had no music at all,&#8221; Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said on his weekly radio show. &#8220;The guys are going to have to create their own energy for each other.&#8221;Franklin danced around the topic for much of the week, repeatedly using the word &#8220;different&#8221; to describe the atmosphere for early games at Northwestern&#8217;s Ryan Field, the smallest venue in the Big Ten.Even Beaver Stadium these days takes close to a full quarter to fill up for a noon kickoff. Now factor in that this noon start will be 11 a.m. local time in Evanston, and it&#8217;s easy to imagine how that might be unsettling for some players.&#8220;What you have to be careful of is, a lot of times when you&#8217;re playing on the road in this type of environment, and you&#8217;re playing at that time in the day, if you look, a lot of people have opened up slow,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;They&#8217;ve sleepwalked through the first quarter. So we&#8217;re talking to our guys about that to be prepared and be ready.&#8221;Look no further than Stanford, the current favorite to win the Pac-12. The Cardinal&#8217;s only loss this season came back in Week 1, a very sluggish performance in a 16-6 loss to the Wildcats after an early kickoff.Only two players on the Lions&#8217; current roster have made the tip to Ryan Field before, and that was back in 2011 when Anthony Zettel and Angelo Mangiro were redshirting and didn&#8217;t play in the game.While the players may not be familiar with the place, the coaches are. Franklin&#8217;s breakthrough 2012 Vanderbilt team went 9-4, including five SEC wins. But the Commodores lost when they went to Chicagoland, falling 23-13 to the Wildcats.&#8220;All we can do,&#8221; Franklin said, &#8220;is get them prepared for it so they&#8217;re not caught off guard when we get there.&#8221;THREE AND OUTSuperback alertPenn State&#8217;s defense will be focused mainly on containing quarterback Clayton Thorson, particularly when he starts scrambling. But there&#8217;s another player that has the Lions&#8217; attention as well.Wildcats senior Dan Vitale isn&#8217;t a traditional tight end. Rather, the Wildcats call it the &#8220;superback&#8221; position because he&#8217;ll line up all over the field.Vitale is in his fourth year as a starter &#8212; his first career start actually came in a 2012 win over a Franklin-coached Vanderbilt squad &#8212; and he has a knack for being right at the sticks on third downs.&#8220;We have to always know where Vitale is,&#8221; Penn State linebackers coach Brent Pry said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a guy who might line up in a slot. He can line up on the line as a tight end. He can line up off the ball in the backfield as a fullback or H-back. He moves around a lot. There is a lot of motion and shifting with him.&#8220;He&#8217;s a very good blocker. He&#8217;s their leading receiver. They even get him the ball on some shovel passes. He&#8217;s definitely a weapon. He&#8217;s a mature guy that&#8217;s played a lot of football. He&#8217;s a guy who is definitely No. 1 on our radar as far as knowing where he is and knowing what he&#8217;s up to. We have tremendous respect for him.&#8221;Kicking it aroundOn Wednesday, Franklin still wasn&#8217;t sure who will handle kicking duties, whether it&#8217;s Joey Julius, Tyler Davis or a combination of the two. The Penn State coach again said that practice this week will decide who gets the nod.Julius has started the first nine games of the season but has now gotten the hook twice in the middle of a game. Against Illinois, he had two low kicks on extra points and both were blocked. He then sent a kickoff out of bounds and Davis replaced him.Davis, a fellow walk-on, was 2 for 2 on field goals against the Illini, hitting from 42 and 28 yards away, and also hit both of his extra point tries.&#8220;Obviously Tyler came in and did a great job on Saturday, and we&#8217;re really proud of him,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Obviously Joey was disappointed with how it played out on the field, with the kick out of bounds and the two low kicks that were blocked. It was a combination. They did get push on those two, as well, but they were very low.&#8220;He&#8217;s disappointed because he knows he can play a lot better. But Tyler did well. We&#8217;ll evaluate those guys this week and see who we think gives us the best chance to be successful on Saturday.&#8221;Of course, Davis also managed to send a kickoff out of bounds, setting the Illini up at the 35-yard line.As they do with punts, Penn State coaches teach players to angle their kicks to the sideline to give return men less room to work with.&#8220;Yes, we are directional kicking on purpose,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;But the direction of choice is not out of bounds.&#8221;A win&#8217;s a win?Thanks to non-conference wins over Stanford and Duke, the Wildcats appeared in the season&#8217;s first College Football Playoff poll this week, as the the selection committee slotted them at No. 21.That means it will be a chance for Franklin and his staff to pick up their first win over a ranked opponent since arriving at Penn State &#8212; UCF was one spot out of the preseason top 25 when the Lions beat the Knights to open the 2013 season.In three years at Vanderbilt, they had one top-25 victory, beating No. 15 Georgia in October 2013.Not that Franklin is keeping track.He quickly shot down a question this week about whether he believed in having a &#8220;signature win.&#8221;&#8220;No,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;No. Every week is important. Every win is important. You don&#8217;t approach it any different. Fans, media &#8212; they talk about those things. We don&#8217;t.&#8221;<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State started strong last week with a touchdown catch by Chris Godwin (12) and an early two-score lead. That might be tougher to pull off against Northwestern. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_godwin-TD.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State started strong last week with a touchdown catch by Chris Godwin (12) and an early two-score lead. That might be tougher to pull off against Northwestern. </caption0><photoCredit0>Abby Drey | AP photo, Centre Daily Times </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>PSU GAMEDAYPenn State (7-2, 4-1) atNo. 21 Northwestern (6-2, 2-2)Noon, ESPNURyan FieldEvanston, Illlinois</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State wary of a slow start vs. Northwestern