EAST LANSING, Mich. — In the belly of the beast — the football field at Spartan Stadium — the University of Hawai'i football team yesterday tried to imagine feeling the fury of more than 70,000 Michigan State fans.

It was why the Warriors, who usually do not practice at an opposing team's home stadium, went through a 90-minute walk-through that was less of a workout and more of a checking-it-out session in preparation for today's game.

"It's impossible to simulate" the anticipated noise, UH coach June Jones noted, and with the athletic department's budget problems, equally difficult to hire 70,000 Fresno State fans as stand-ins during practices.

"You just have to adjust," Jones said.

UH punter Daniel Kelly, whose high school team never played before crowds larger than 250, said he received a partial sampling from the 10,000 visiting Southern California fans who attended UH's game last week.

"There was a decent amount of red," Kelly said. "I'm not out to impress the crowd. I'm out there to impress my team, and do my team honor. (Opposing fans) can talk as much as they want, but I'm not a big listener."

MSU quarterback Drew Stanton acknowledged the Spartan fans, particularly the 12,000 in the student sections, provide earwax-loosening support. "I think in the Big Ten, we're one of the better stadiums," Stanton said. "We pack it in there."

In practices this week, the Warriors worked on "silent counts" — hand signals and leg stompings — to alert one another to upcoming plays and snap counts. "It's a good way to discipline everyone," UH wideout Ian Sample said. "We actually watch the ball (being snapped), and hopefully we won't jump offsides. Against SC, we were trying to anticipate the snap, and that definitely hurt us. We jumped offsides too many times."

UH defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville also said the coaches have encouraged the players to become empowered by the crowd's heckles.

"Pro wise," said Glanville, who was head coach of the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons, "you thrive on it. I told the team, 'I hope they all stand and boo. If they boo us, that means you've accomplished something.' In the pros, our teams fed off the animosity of the crowd to make you play better. That was the fun of playing on the road. We actually played better."

A greater challenge, Glanville said, is countering the Spartans' XXXL-sized players on offense. Left wideout Matt Trannon is 6 feet 6 and 227 pounds. Tight end Ryan Woods weighs 259 pounds. The average MSU starting offensive lineman weighs 310 pounds.

"They've got wide bodies," Glanville said of the MSU blockers. "Their butts" — he spreads his arms wide — "are like that."

To combat Goliath, Glanville said, "we're going to have to bring all five stones. We can't stop them with just one stone."

The Spartans, meanwhile, are concerned about Glanville, who ended a 12-year coaching hiatus by signing with UH in April.

"We have to step back in time," MSU coach John L. Smith said. "All of a sudden, Jerry now is giving us things we haven't seen for the last 10 years. We have to pull out some of the what-did-we-do-against-this things that we used to see a lot, things we got away from a long time ago. Now we're having to re-add that stuff, and it's hard to get it in, in a week. They create some problems."

Stanton said the Spartans were not able to draw a sufficient amount of clues from the videotape of the USC-UH game. USC and MSU run different offenses.

"We only found 30 snaps that were comparable," Stanton said. "All we know about (Glanville) is he's aggressive."

Smith acknowledged he did not want to exchange videotapes with UH. The tradeoff is a common — although not mandatory — practice between opponents in college football. UH and Kent State, Michigan's State's opponent last week, both run four-wide offenses.

"It's a nonfactor," Smith said of his decision. "June knows I'm going to do whatever I think benefits our football team. If that means not exchanging, I won't exchange, and he'll do the same for his team. It's part of coaching."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.