ATHENS — Kirby Smart is not one to get caught up in distractions, but Mississippi State’s cowbell-crazy crowd will be hard to ignore.
“Noise is noise,” Smart said when asked about the unique crowd experience awaiting Georgia at 61,337-seat Davis Wade Stadium in the noon game on Saturday in Starkville.
“It’s hard to play in the SEC on the road. I have not been to an SEC venue that it was not hard to play on the road …. that’s not going to change with them.”
The No. 5-ranked Georgia Bulldogs are only an 8 1/2-point favorite over Mississippi State, despite the fact that the home team has not beaten an SEC opponent in Davis Wade Stadium in three years, a streak of 11 consecutive conference losses.
The Maroon Bulldogs of Mississippi State did, however, beat then-No. 12 Arizona State at home (24-20, Sept. 6) and take both No. 23 Tennessee and No. 13 Texas to overtime in Starkville this season before losing 41-34 to the Volunteers and 45-38 to the Longhorns.
Opposing coaches have taken note of the unique noise experience at Mississippi State.
“Those cowbells are something else,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said after his Longhorns came from 17 down in the fourth quarter to push the game into overtime. “Man, it was loud.”
Smart knows that well, having played there in 1996 (a 38-19 win) and coached against Mississippi State several times during his career as an assistant at Georgia (a 23-10 win in 2005) a head coach at Georgia (a 45-19 win in 2022) and as an assistant at Alabama (a 17-12 loss in 2007 and four wins between 2009 and 2015).
“They’ve got a really vertical stadium, (and) I think the noise gets trapped in their stadium,” Smart said. “It’s one of the loudest places I’ve coached, and I’ve coached there a lot.”
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, like Sarkisian, made it clear that Mississippi State’s home-field noise created issues.
“Yeah, cowbells, I’m not sure the right way to describe it, but a noisemaker at the end of the day,” Heupel said. “We had a couple false starts on tempo in short-yardage situations that changed the way the game’s played.
“Those things, they’re a part of it, you know?”
Mississippi State has a special exemption from the SEC to allow cowbells as long as they are not rung after the center for a team goes over the ball for the snap.
MSU coach Jeff Lebby encouraged fans to “ring responsibly” earlier this season to avoid the possibility of an on-field penalty.
The SEC once banned cowbells from 1974 to 2010, before former commissioner Mike Slive allowed Mississippi State fans to utilize them, provided they are not used after the center goes over the ball for the snap.
Per SEC rules, “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.”
Georgia receiver Noah Thomas went through the cowbell experience at Mississippi State last season while he was still at Texas A&M, before transferring to UGA.
“I’m sure Coach Smart will have the cowbells playing at practice,” said Thomas, who had two catches for 37 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown catch in the Aggies’ 34-24 win over Mississippi State.
“So yeah, that’s one of their little things they do.”
Smart indicated he’s just as concerned with making sure his team is ready for the early kick time in this road game.
“As far as the early kickoff, that’s more unique to me than the stadium,” Smart said. “The uniqueness is the change in time …. (And) you’re changing time zones and what time the kick is.
“But it’s the same for both, it’s how you manage it. We approach it differently, take a lot of ideas from other people on the best way to manage it.”
Georgia has won three of its past five road games in the SEC, including both this season, 20-10 at Auburn (Oct. 11) and 44-41 in overtime at Tennessee (Sept. 27).
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