Cowbell Corner

Bulldog Roundup: Davis Wade Stadium sold out for first SEC game

Your daily briefing on what's going on with Mississippi State Athletics.
Taylor Hodges|
Mississippi State Bulldogs fans cheer before the game against the Alcorn State Braves at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field.
Mississippi State Bulldogs fans cheer before the game against the Alcorn State Braves at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. | Wesley Hale-Imagn Images

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Mississippi State Bulldogs

The cowbell-induced sensory depravation chamber known as Davis Wade Stadium is going to be very loud Saturday.

Mississippi State announced it has sold out of all tickets for the Bulldogs’ SEC opening game against No. 15 Tennessee.

With an official capacity of 61,311, Saturday afternoon’s game is likely to be the largest attendance at Davis Wade since the Egg Bowl game in 2023.

That game, which was the last one played before Jeff Lebby was hired, saw 60,412 people fill the stands to watch the Bulldogs lose 17-7 to Ole Miss.

The last true sellout was in 2018 when Dan Mullen returned to Starkville with Florida. That game had an attendance of 61,406. The largest ever recorded attendance was in 2014 against Auburn with an announced total of 62,945.

We won’t know if Saturday’s game will top that, but it’s fair to think the final attendance numbers will be more than 60,000.

It should definitely top the 50,808 attendance total for the first game of the season at Davis Wade Stadium against Arizona State.

It’s not a shock that tickets have sold out to watch the Volunteers and Bulldogs.

After two years of gloomy results, there is a lot of hope and optimism in Starkville.

Mississippi State is 4-0 for the first time in more than a decade and two more wins to become bowl-eligible isn’t that unrealistic.

A win against Tennessee would send all that hope shooting into the sky like a rocket ship and having 60,000-plus cowbells will give the Bulldogs a big home field advantage.

“Home field advantage is very real. And with our opponent coming to town, their first true road game, they had a neutral site game to open the year, but their first road game, it does help,” Lebby said earlier this week. “It needs to be an atmosphere and an energy that is really, really, really hard for the opponent to come play in. And that's going to be a huge piece of it on Saturday. Our people will have great energy. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And then our guys are going to be excited to be able to keep them really involved in the game by how we play.”

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Taylor Hodges
TAYLOR HODGES

Award-winning sports editor, writer, columnist, and photographer with 15 years’ experience offering his opinion and insight about the sports world in Mississippi and Texas, but he was taken to Razorback pep rallies at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth before he could walk. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.

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