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Texas vs. Mississippi State: Get ready for more cowbell

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook8 hours agojosephcook89
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Starkville, MS, USA; A cowbell sits on a column before the game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-Imagn Images

Fevers, prescriptions, don’t fear the reaper, all that stuff. This is cowbell week for the Texas Longhorns ahead of their matchup with Mississippi State.

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Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss. can pack in just over 60,000 fans, and most of the ones wearing maroon on Saturday will bring a cowbell with them to the game.

The cowbell is one of the things most people associate with Mississippi State football. There’s even a social media hashtag in #clanga that references just about anything that has to do with the artificial noisemaker and Bulldogs athletics.

Texas will need to be ready to hear ‘clanga’ over and over… and over… and over on Saturday.

Steve Sarkisian‘s program has been in raucous environments before, but the onslaught of ringing from tens of thousands of cowbells is something the Longhorns haven’t had to experience as members of the Southeastern Conference. As part of Texas’ still ongoing introduction to the SEC, they’ll learn firsthand what it’s like on Saturday.

Cowbells as part of the Mississippi State gameday atmosphere resurfaced in 2010. The league originally banned artificial noisemakers at football and basketball games in 1974 with a 9-1 vote. In 2010, the league revisited the rule and permitted cowbells with unique restrictions because of how beloved they are in the history of MSU.

Mississippi State fans abided by those restrictions and they were relaxed as a result. Davis Wade Stadium has become a unique challenge for teams in the wake of the return of the ringing bells but there are still rules surrounding their use.

Via the SEC Constitution and Bylaws, rule 30.22.1.5(d)…

“Additionally, the use of institutionally controlled computerized sound systems (including music), institutionally controlled artificial noisemakers and any traditional institutional noise maker shall not play from the time the offensive center puts a hand on the football until the officials whistle the play dead.”

So until Texas is ready to play, the Longhorns should be ready for their ears to ring.

Teams can try all they want to prep for the cowbells. Ahead of Arizona State’s trip to Starkville earlier this year, Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham had staffers stand on the sideline and ring cowbells. Whether or not that helped prepare ASU for Davis Wade Stadium is up for debate as the Bulldogs won 24-20. Arizona State logged eight penalties with four of them of the pre-snap variety.

Texas often says it preps for crowd noise. It’ll have to inside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, on the Denius Fields, and even inside the Bubble in a different way this week.

Davis-Wade Stadium can bring the noise. Texas can silence it, but it’ll have to silence both the manmade and artificial varieties in Starkville.

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