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Paul Posluszny sacks Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith in fourth quarter during Penn State's 17-10 win on Oct. 8, 2005. Kent State head coach Paul Haynes was then the OSU secondary coach and says he measures all road crowds against that one for energy and enthusiasm.

(PennLive/Joe Hermitt)

Paul Haynes didn't know quite what to expect when he entered Beaver Stadium on the cool, rainy evening of Oct. 8, 2005. He had only months before been hired on by Jim Tressel as Ohio State's new secondary coach, having escaped the kookoo circus of John L. Smith's reign at Michigan State.

He was about to get a baptism at the Beav he would not forget, a road-trip experience against which he has since measured all others during a 22-year tenure as a college coach, nearly half of that at Power Five schools.

"I don't know if it was the first White-Out," said the fourth-year Kent State head coach this morning. "But I know it was the one that made an impact on me.

"It was an unbelievable atmosphere. It's one of the only ones that I remember that - usually when you pulled up to Big Ten stadiums, you saw more scarlet than you saw other colors. Not at Penn State. It's all blue and white and it was unbelievable."

Haynes will bring his Golden Flashes to Beaver Stadium for the second time, having also visited in 2013, a 34-0 loss to Bill O'Brien's second team. But he's probably not anticipating anything resembling what he remembers from 2005.

Haynes during Kent State's game last season at Toledo.

Haynes recalled that just getting the Buckeyes, led by quarterback Troy Smith, out to the field for warm-ups was somewhat traumatic:

"At the time, [outside] the locker room, underneath the stadium, they didn't have the gates. It was just ropes that [within] you had to get to the field. I mean, the fans are going to their seats and it was hectic."

It was even more dramatic when they came out for the opening kick:

"When we came back out from pregame and went back out, the ropes were gone."

Essentially, it was a gantlet, the OSU players had to walk, making their own way. Haynes chuckled just remembering the scene:

"We had to walk through that thing, single-file line with all the fans and it was... unbelievable."

As we all know, the atmosphere only ramped up to bedlam level during the game itself as the Nittany Lions, bent on making a statement after a 5-year hiatus from the national scene, got a pair of early touchdowns and held on for a 17-10 win.

Haynes said he has measured every road atmosphere against that one in the 11 seasons since, seven at Ohio State (2005-11), one at Arkansas (2012), three as Kent's head coach:

"Ever since that 2005 game, every stadium that I pull up into, I always gauge it based off of that Penn State look, on how the crowd is gonna be. And it made a huge impact because I think it's one of the loudest, one of the rowdiest and they have great tradition.

"So, it's gonna be exciting for our guys to play in front of it. But also because I don't know if anything else can match it."