Published: September 04, 2008 11:58 pm         

Camp Randall will be jumping, Snyder warns

If Marshall has any chance of upsetting Wisconsin, then it better have the lead going into the fourth quarter.

Mark Snyder knows all about what to expect when the Thundering Herd visits the No. 11 Badgers at noon Eastern time Saturday. It will be the first meeting between the schools, but Snyder is very familiar with Camp Randall Stadium.

“My memories of Wisconsin are not good,” he said. “It is not an easy place to play. A, because of the brand of football, and B, because of the crowd, the aura that surrounds it.

“I have always said the two hardest places to play are Penn State at night and Wisconsin at night.”

Snyder spent four years on the coaching staff at Minnesota before spending another four years at Ohio State. This will be his first venture into Big Ten country as head coach of the Herd.

And he can convey to his players the kind of atmosphere they will walk into. Like, for instance, the playing of House of Pain’s 1990s hit “Jump Around” at the start of the fourth quarter.

“The student section will be live; one corner of the end zone is going to be very, very loud,” Snyder said. “They play ‘Jump Around’ and that is one of the neatest scenes in all of college football. It’s a pretty neat scene and it sends them into the fourth quarter with a little extra swagger.”

Snyder believes his charges will be able to handle it.

“That (atmosphere) is why you play college football, for that very reason,” he said. “I think our guys are up to the challenge. The young kids that we’re playing right now have a lot of poise. I think we’ll be fine.”

Some of those “young kids” are in the secondary, including true freshmen Omar Brown and Ahmed Shakoor. Snyder thought they played well in their debuts against Illinois State, but will need to step it up against the Badgers.

“They are going to make your DBs need to tackle,” Snyder said. “That’s just the way it is when you play these guys. We are going to have to be on top of our game.”

Senior free safety C.J. Spillman had a team-high 13 tackles for the Herd against Illinois State last Saturday.

“No. 4 (Spillman) is as good an athlete as I have seen at the free safety position,” Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said.

Snyder said game film provided a true glimpse of how well he thought the Herd (1-0) played last week.

The same, however, is true of Wisconsin, which ran for 404 yards in a 38-17 win over Akron.

“We dominated a little more than the score indicated,” Snyder said, “and, unfortunately, as I watched the Wisconsin film against Akron, they dominated a little more than the score indicated, too.”

— E-mail:

gfauber@register-herald.com