EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Northwestern coach David Braun has been looking forward to the first game at the new Ryan Field for a long time.
That moment has arrived.
The Wildcats host Penn State on Friday night for the highly anticipated debut of their $875 million stadium — built on the same site as the former Ryan Field. The first game is being played on the 100th anniversary of the opening of the original Northwestern Stadium.
“This is transformational,” Braun said, “for the university and for the football program. It’s an honor to be in a position to lead and serve this program, and also a unique challenge in terms of making sure that myself, our staff and our players ultimately focus on the main thing, and that’s preparing for a very talented, very well-coached Penn State team.”
The new Ryan Field seats 35,000, down more than 12,000 from the school’s previous home. It’s the smallest stadium by capacity in the Big Ten.
It features a canopy designed to keep noise and light focused on the field and includes cutting-edge technology and scoreboards, as well as concessions with food from local restaurants.
“The fans are truly on top of the action. I mean they are a part of the game,” Braun said. “Standing at midfield, I mean you almost feel like you can reach out and touch the stands. And the acoustics that that’s going to create with the canopy creates for an incredible opportunity for a home-field advantage.”
It’s a major change for Northwestern after it played its home games for the past two-plus years at a temporary lakefront facility and at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It broke ground on the new Ryan Field in June 2024.
The Wildcats played their first two games this season at the lakefront stadium, beating South Dakota State 34-18 on Sept. 5 and pounding Colorado 41-7 on Sept. 19. They are coming off a tough 29-23 loss at No. 6 Indiana in their Big Ten opener.
“I think our guys proved to themselves that sometimes in those settings, it’s our first time as a team on the road, I know we learned from it,” Braun said. “We just need to take a breath, keep our poise and focus on the things that we can control. Very confident that our group will handle that better next time.”
It’s also a big moment for Penn State in its first season under coach Matt Campbell. The Nittany Lions opened with victories over Marshall, Temple and Buffalo before blowing a 17-point lead in a 24-20 loss to visiting Wisconsin in their conference opener on Saturday.
“We understand that it’s a 12-game season guaranteed to us,” Campbell said, “and the reality is, whether you win or you lose, you have to continue to be able to grow forward. I think that there’s plenty of great experiences over the last five years of teams that lost early, had the ability to use that loss and have the opportunity to grow itself forward.”
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