Cowbells do play factor when playing at Mississippi State

Quarterback Will Levis has not let crowd noise disrupt him or UK's offense this season. (Vicky Graff Photo)

No matter who is coaching or playing at Mississippi State, there’s always one constant for games at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville — cowbells. Never mind that noisemakers are a no-no for Southeastern Conference stadiums. At Mississippi State, the cowbells are going to be ringing Saturday night when No. 12 Kentucky plays the Bulldogs.

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops says the cowbells “definitely” are a factor.

“I’m still lobbying for some deal here. Get that deal going and blow a bunch of air horns or something the whole game. It’s a pretty good deal for them,” Stoops said.

Pretty good? It’s really good and can impact opposing teams, especially on offense. The good news for Kentucky is that quarterback Will Levis and the offense have handled crowd noise at South Carolina and Georgia without any major issues.
 
“You can see by watching that games that we’ve handled it relatively well — considering the hostile environment, considering what we saw, (visiting) people and how they were affected here in Kroger Field,” Stoops said, recalling how Florida’s offense had eight false start penalties in Lexington last month.

“The way we’ve gone on the road, we’ve handled it relatively well. We need to continue to improve on that. The good things we did in those games we need to build on, but overall not too bad.”

Stoops also isn’t going to let any “noise” about his name being linked with other head coaching jobs for next season be a distraction for his team this week.

“I’m not getting into all that. I’d rather have it this way than saying you’re trying to run me out of here,” Stoops joked.