‘Whatever the Hell That Means’: Bret Bielema Confused by Penn State Pushing for ‘White Out Energy’

It’s pretty clear at this point that Penn State football’s game Saturday night against will be an unofficial White Out.

That became clear after the team’s win over Kent State Saturday, when coach James Franklin called for “White Out energy.”

Since then, assistant coaches, players and letterman have joined in on the fun, and Franklin brought the point home even further by wearing a white sweatshirt to his Monday presser.

Illinois coach Bret Bielema knows all about Penn State, what with this being his 11th season coaching in the Big Ten (seven at Wisconsin, going on four at Illinois.)

But he’s confused by the ‘White Out energy’ term Penn State is pushing.

“Whatever the hell that means,” Bielema said during his Monday presser.

But Bielema did speak highly of Penn State’s atmosphere and remembered the first time he coached in Beaver Stadium, as a graduate assistant at Iowa in 1994.

Iowa lost, 63-21, and ironically enough, the 1994 team, which finished undefeated, will be honored Saturday for the 30th anniversary of the season.

“I’ll go back to the first time I ever went there,” he said. “It wasn’t a great result. We were down 28-0 at the start of the second quarter.”

Bielema described Penn State as having “such an incredible crowd.”

“I’ve  been in the Big Ten a long time,” he said. “But for me as a GA to see that for the first time was really overwhelmingly amazing. It’s kind of like a spaceship out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Their fans are intelligent. They have tradition, very similar to Nebraska. They’re been doing this for a long time. Penn State fans are accustomed to great football.”

Bielema coached against Joe Paterno several times and remembers hearing a speech from the legend.

“He was talking about uniforms, he goes ‘I don’t like our uniforms,’ but, he goes, everybody knows it’s Penn State. And I just have that in my mind of what this program has been built on.”

Biemela also remembered being on a Nike coach’s trip and seeing Penn State legend Franco Harris, who had come to see Sue Paterno in Hawaii after Joe had passed away.

“That’s the ultimate,” he said. “Of a player who had come to see a coach’s wife, I was like, ‘that’s a sign of the program.’ So huge respect for that. That’s pretty cool.”