Arizona State football prepares for the Washington crowd

TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State football is preparing for a difficult game ahead, a road matchup against No. 5 Washington. The trip to Seattle brings difficult tests. A few of those are containing Michael Penix and the explosive Washington offense, defending one of the best wide receiver rooms in all of college football, and handling the chaotic Husky environment.

One of the ways the Sun Devils are preparing this week for the crowd is by simulating crowd noise.

Arizona State football preparing for the loud crowd in Seattle

Tuesday and Wednesday morning during practice Arizona State moved into the indoor practice facility, also known as the bubble.

The Sun Devils normally practice outside, even going back to August. The majority of their home games will be in the heat, so Dillingham wants them to be comfortable in the harsh environment of the Valley. The relentless practice outdoors makes sure the players are prepared and gives more of a home-field advantage.

However, the circumstances are far different for a road game in Seattle than a home game in Tempe. The massive crowd will be roaring for the Huskies, and the temperature for Saturday in Seattle sits at 60 in cloudy. In Tempe? 99 and sunny.

Quite the difference.

With the change in temperature, there doesn’t seem to be a clear advantage to practicing outdoors this week, and Dillingham sees that. So practices have moved to the indoor bubble, and the staff has routinely pumped in loud crowd noise through the speakers. Obviously, it’s impossible to truly simulate a packed stadium, but this is the closest ASU can get.

We’ll see if the advanced simulation can help reduce false starts, delay of games, and other penalties thanks to crowd noise.

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