Despite an SEC rule that prohibits fans from entering football games with artificial noisemakers, many members of the Mississippi State faithful scoff at authorities and sneak their infamous Cowbells into contests, whether they be in Starkville or at an opponent’s venue. This weekend shouldn’t be any different.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban has spent all week preparing his team for the onslaught of auditory distraction brought by the Cowbells. He hired long-time Bama aide, Gene Frenkle, to replicate the obnoxious clanging of the Cowbell during The Tide’s scrimmages this week. Gene’s help during Thursday’s practice session sparked an altercation between the Bama offense and Gene, who decided to magnify his clanging late in the week.
Although Saban does not allow the press to video practice, one DCT correspondent brought a dictaphone to the Thursday session and captured audio of the altercation on tape. The transcript from that audio after the jump.
(Gene actually stepped onto the playing field, behind quarterback John Parker Wilson and clanged the Cowbell next to Wilson’s earhole as he barked out signals before a snap).
John Parker Wilson: “C’mon Gene!”
Gene: “No, you c’mon!”
Saban: “You know…that…that…it doesn’t work for me…I gotta have more Cowbell.”
JPW: “Don’t blow this for us Gene!!!”
Julio Jones: “Quit bein’ so selfish Gene!”
Gene: “Can I just say one thing?”
Saban: “Say it baby, just say it.”
Gene: “I’m standin’ here starin’ at football legend Nick Saban…”
Saban: “I’m the cock of the walk baby!”
Gene: “…and if Nick Saban wants more Cowbell, we should probably give him more Cowbell!”
Saban: “Say it baby!”
Gene: “And Julio you are right, I am being selfish…but the last time I checked, we don’t have a whole lot of opponents that feature the Cowbell…”
Saban: “I gotta have more Cowbell baby!”
Gene: “…and I’d be doing myself a disservice, and every member of this team, IF I DIDN’T PERFORM THE HELL OUTTA THIS!”
Saban: “Well guess what?!?! I got a fever! And the only prescription is MORE COWBELL!”
Gene: “Thank you Coach. I think if…I think if…maybe if I just leave…and maybe I’ll come back later…we can lay down the Cowbell…”
Saban: “C’mon baby…”
JPW: “Gene wait…why don’t you lay down that Cowbell right now. With us. Together.”
Gene: “Do you mean that, John Parker?”
Nick Walker: “He speaks for all of us.”
Saban: “Babies, before we’re done here…y’all will be wearing crystal-plated diapers.”
Glen Coffee: “What does that mean???”
Saban: “Never question Nick Saban! Roll it!”
(Gene continued with the clanging of the Cowbell, and Saban told the media, after practice, the team is “prepared for the distractions relative to what the guys on the other side are trying to accomplish, in terms of mindset and intensity, aight?”)
A Drug Called Tradition 
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