In the north end of the Davis Wade Stadium during a Saturday fall football game, students in boutique tops and Dak Prescott jerseys line the stands. However, a select few stray away from this commonality, turning away from their closets and picking up paint for game day attire.
“Painting up” is a classic tradition carried by many sports fans where people paint letters on their bodies to spell out words or phrases for their favorite teams. At Mississippi State University, the Hail State Paint-up Squad stands out with their witty spell-outs and funky hats.
The paint squad joined the student section during the 2014 football season. The squad has attended most of the sporting events held, making appearances at volleyball, soccer and basketball games, aside from their usual appearances in Davis Wade Stadium.
Ethan Crow, a junior biomedical engineering major, joined the squad through his brother, Alex, and has become one of the regular paint-up members.
“We’re focused on bringing the atmosphere and a good game day environment to the stadium itself and trying to just bring as much energy and hype as we can,” Crow said.
Bentley Hillis, a senior aerospace engineering major, joined the squad through his roommate.
According to Hillis, any student who wants to paint up can join. He said a greater number of participants means greater spell outs.
The paint-up squad usually sits a few seats away from Carter Bentley, who dresses as Will Ferrell’s cowbell-playing character from the Saturday Night Live season 25 skit “More Cowbell.”
Bentley, a senior professional meteorology major, loved the “More Cowbell” skit before he loved Mississippi State. Once he became a student, he said he thought dressing up would be a funny thing to do to pay tribute to the skit at games.
“I just think if I can make other people laugh and think about it the way that I did when I first started, then I’m happy with that,” Bentley said.
Hillis expressed his joy about what Bentley brings to the student section.
“The Will Ferrell guy is hilarious,” Hillis said. “Anyone that dresses up or does something funny in the student section, I think it’s great fun.”
Along with the paint-up squad and the Will Ferrell impersonator, the student section’s character list added two individuals donning Diet Dr Pepper boxes as armor for their game day attire.
Sophomore roommates Josh King and Josh Griffin decided to put their Diet Dr Pepper intake to use.
The pair wore their cardboard attire to baseball games this past season, and they decided the Oct. 8 game against the University of Arkansas would be the perfect time to bring their suits to Davis Wade.
King, a data science major, said the announcers at one of baseball game he and Griffin attended last year called them the “Diet Dr Pepper Dudes” after the announcer saw the pair’s costumes.
The idea to become the “Diet Dr Pepper Dudes” came from a TikTok trend, where Griffin and King saw people make armor out of soda can boxes. With the amount of Diet Dr Pepper Griffin consumes, the pair knew they had enough material to make their own.
Griffin, an aerospace engineering major, turned his love for Diet Dr Pepper into a Viking suit, and King opted for creating samurai suit.
King did not drink a single can of soda for this project but still took the boxes to create his suit. He said as he started to wear the suit, he noticed just how pumped up the crowd can get.
“The suits don’t bring the energy to the game. The fans and the others in the student section, they bring the energy to the game,” King said.
King said the pair have not decided whether to join Bentley and the paint-up squad for the remaining football games this season, but he said they hope to bring the suits out before one of the games to get the day started.
Together, Bentley, King, Giffin and the paint-up squad help energize the crowd through their unique personalities and having fun.