ATHENS — Kirby Smart prepped for plenty of football trips to Mississippi State, first as a player at Georgia and then as an assistant coach to Nick Saban at Alabama.

The Maroon Bulldogs are on their fifth head coach since Smart was a safety on the Georgia team that won 38-19 at Davis Wade Stadium in 1996, but there’s one thing that hasn’t changed: cowbells.

RELATED: Nothing eccentric about Mike Leach’s approach to beating Georgia

Smart’s No. 1-ranked Bulldogs are sure to hear plenty of clanking throughout the action as Mississippi State fans look to provide their squad a home-field advantage in the 7 p.m. kick (TV: ESPN).

RELATED: Around the SEC TV times, networks and picks from Mike Griffith

The Georgia head coach explained how he made sure the cowbell noises will be familiar to his players, to the extent it should not prove a difference-making distraction.

“We played the bell noise at the beginning of our team meetings multiple days to kind of annoy them,” Smart said. “We had the bell noise pumped into the team meeting so they’ll get used to hearing it, but we did not pump it into practice.

WATCH: Experts debate, has Georgia replaced Alabama as SEC Standard?

“We pumped our normal crowd noise in with the hope they won’t mistake a bell noise for a clap, because that’s what our normal cadence is.”

Beyond the cowbells, there is a formula for a Mississippi State upset, and here are the three keys that Georgia -- a 17-point favorite -- must take great care to avoid:

1. Turnovers

Georgia’s worst enemy this season has been itself. The Bulldogs have only looked beatable when turning the ball over, most notably at Missouri when two fumbles and a sputtering pass game led to a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit.

Mississippi State has collected at least one takeaway in 26 of 33 games under DC Zach Arnett and will need its unique 3-3-5 to put the team at Plus-2 in turnover margin to have any chance of an upset

2. Special Teams

More intangibles, and there’s some steam behind this one for the Bullies as they have the No. 3-rated special teams units according to PFF.

Also worth noting, State leads the nation with a 29-yard kick return average while UGA ranks 57th in kick return defense.

3. Fast start

It’s really the only shot for Mississippi State to get out to a good start on Georgia and influence the play-calling and pressure on Stetson Bennett.

Mike leach is 13-4 at MSU when scoring first, while Kirby Smart goes from 57-8 when UGA scores first to 17-8 when the opponent scores first — and 11-10 when trailing at halftime.