Coming into Week 9, Texas (5-2) sits in a precarious position. The two losses mean that they can’t afford another one. Moreover, considering their inconsistent offensive play, even a winnable game can become a close fight, as we saw against Kentucky last year. Next up, they face Mississippi State. To prepare for the game, Steve Sarkisian is going an extra step. He’s also taking into account the 12th man for Mississippi State. The environment at Davis Wade Stadium itself!

We have seen other head coaches, too, trying to navigate an intimidating atmosphere by simulating the same with their team at practice. Dan Lanning did that most recently, when he literally blared loudspeakers to create a mini-death valley in Eugene for the Penn State game. Steve Sarkisian is following Dan Lanning’s footsteps to simulate those ‘cowbells’ that the team would face at Starkville.

The Longhorns’ head coach, in his recent press conference, expanded on how he simulated the Mississippi State atmosphere by playing cowbells in Austin. “One of the coolest things about this league is you go on the road and everybody’s got their own niche, right? Everybody’s got their own thing that is unique to their home game environment. And for Mississippi State to have the cowbells, I think that is a really cool thing for college football,” said Sarkisian.

A tradition that started with a wandering jersey cow with its bell has become an iconic symbol for Mississippi State. Ever since then, the Bulldogs’ fans have used the bells to create an intimidating atmosphere, reportedly going up to 120 decibels. y.

According to reports, the Texas head coach piped in cowbells in practices all week and has left no stone unturned to simulate the environment. Sarkisian called it “an awesome atmosphere” and seems fully prepared to navigate the game on 25th October.

We can’t emphasize enough how one slip-up can derail Texas’ season for good. They still have Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M left on their schedule. The good thing for the Longhorns is that they have only one conference loss. If they somehow manage to win it all from here on, that could even land them in the conference championship game. However, at the moment, it’s one game at a time. Will preparing for the atmosphere guarantee a win for Texas? No one knows. But going by a previous example of a Big 12 head coach, it isn’t a guarantee.

Steve Sarkisian’s method has the potential to backfire if learning from a Big 12 coach’s history

Mississippi State is probably out of playoff contention already with three consecutive losses. But that doesn’t mean the team won’t pull out everything to make the CFP journey difficult for other teams. We saw that happen against Arizona State in Week 2. The Bulldogs, courtesy of their intimidating environment and incredible passing game, came out with a 24-20 win. And all of that happened even after ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham simulated the cowbell environment in his practice, too.

“Obviously, you can’t simulate their fan base and their excitement in that environment, but you can be as close as you can. We’re just trying to simulate the passion of that city and that place, and it’s awesome….We ordered cowbells. We ordered 75, and we got these tiny little bells that get delivered… To me, that’s a sign of respect that we know the environment we’re going into is so loud that we’re trying to be as close as possible to it,” said Kenny Dillingham ahead of the Bulldogs’ game.

Simulating cowbells will likely not create the same environment as Davis Wade Stadium. But it sure shows one thing about Texas. That Steve Sarkisian is serious about winning. It may not have worked for Kenny Dillingham, but Texas can hope to hold its own.