HOOVER, Ala. — Upstairs, on the second floor of The Wynfrey Hotel, is the official headquarters of the SEC Media Days. It’s all suits, bowties, high-priced sneakers and coach speak. Way too much coach speak.

Downstairs? Downstairs is where the party is.

In order to get upstairs, players and coaches must first pass through the hotel lobby.

Fans drive hours for a glimpse of celebrity, the once-in-a-lifetime chance that Butch Jones might stop long enough to sign that shiny, new Volunteers helmet.

Steven “Stingray” Ray is part of the show each year.

A huge part of it. Maybe the biggest non-celebrity celebrity the SEC has. You’ve seen him. You’ve heard him. He’s Mississippi State’s super fan, by way of the University of Alabama, where he earned a sports broadcasting degree in 2010. He fell in love with Bulldogs football in 2004, refuses to visit Oxford and signs off most interviews with “Hail State!”

Fans point to him. Media members crowd around him. Almost 6,000 follow him on Twitter.

Stingray broke from the pack long enough Tuesday to talk Mississippi State football with Saturday Down South.

He didn’t hold a microphone, but he made sure to bring — and ring — those cowbells.