Kenny Dillingham makes amends with Mississippi State superfan over hotel comments, cowbell use

Barstool Sports personality and Mississippi State superfan Brandon Walker had fighting words for Kenny Dillingham this week after the coach’s vague comments about the team’s hotel accommodations came off as a shot at the Starkville fan base.

When Dillingham joined Walker on FS1’s “Wake Up Barstool” on Thursday, he said the back-and-forth nature of the week will result in a more rabid Starkville.

Kenny Dillingham was a guest this morning on “Wake Up Barstool,” in which he respected Brandon Walker’s (@BFW) criticism of his team’s preparation:

“Because you stirred the pot, there’s gonna be more cowbells than we anticipated…”@CronkiteSports
pic.twitter.com/OxpFMKPAuF https://t.co/2nIx02vnmn

— Max Zepeda (@MaxZepedaSports) September 4, 2025

Dillingham stated Monday the only options when traveling for a game in Starkville are to stay an hour away or at a casino.

“That’s not true! That’s simply not true!” Walker later protested. “We have 10 hotels within a mile of campus. … We’ve been hosting SEC teams for 100 years, you can get hotels. I liked Kenny Dillingham until yesterday.”

When Dillingham joined Walker on Thursday, it didn’t take the coach long to win Walker back over.

“There’s tons of hotels in Starkville,” Dillingham said. “The context of the question asked was when you stay in different towns, it was about your big travel party and not all the hotels that we could stay at were available ’cause they’re booked out ’cause your fan base is really good and they’re booked out to fans.”

Walker was left speechless, other than two mentions of “this guy is good.”

Kenny Dillingham: Practice cowbells won’t match Starkville cowbells

The superfan also took issue with how ASU was trying to simulate Mississippi State’s cowbell effect.

Dillingham knows cowbells at practice — whether coming through the speakers or being rung by staffers — won’t adequately prepare his team for what they’ll get on Saturday.

“Obviously, you can’t simulate their fan base and their excitement in that environment, but you can be as close as you can,” Dillingham said after practice on Tuesday. “We’re just trying to simulate the passion of that city and that place, and it’s awesome.”

That didn’t stop Walker and Co. for criticizing the way ASU had “like three people ringing a total of six cowbells.”

Dillingham on Thursday said he expected the preparations to look a bit different.

“Funny story, we ordered cowbells. We ordered 75, and we get these tiny little bells that get delivered, and I go to our (operations staff) like, ‘Are these even clarified as cowbells?'” the coach said. “But they’re all we had, so we had these little bells ringing and we played them throughout the speaker.

“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.”

Dillingham added fan bases taking things like this so personally is what he loves most about college football.

“I love college towns, and you know what I love the most about it is how fired up you and your fan base got over me not even taking a shot,” Dillingham said. “It was just a lack of me communicating fully why we were staying where we’re staying — which I don’t want people to know where we’re staying.”

And credit where it’s due, Walker admitted he overreacted, saying it came from a place of wanting to defend a place he feels such pride in.

Catch Saturday’s matchup at 4:30 p.m. MST on the Arizona Sports app, ESPN 620 AM or 98.7 FM HD-2. It will be televised on ESPN2.

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