They are easy to spot.

Standing in the front row of every football game, shirts off, and paint on their chests.

Running flags up and down the sideline, yelling and screaming, cheering and jeering.

They are the Stang Gang.

Coleman Reidling, is the assistant hall director at Pierce Hall, and the unofficial leader of the group.

Reidling, history sophomore, said that the group is a joint effort between MSU’s athletic department and students attempting to promote school spirit.

“We just want people to be proud of the school’s sports teams, and not take it for granted,” Reidling said.

The Stang Gang has been seen tailgating at games and standing in the stadium, cheering their team, playfully jeering the opponents and inviting other spectators to be as vocal as they can be.

“We go and spell MSU on our chests and just have fun with anyone who will join in,”  Reidling said. “We get loud and cheer, and know everyone on the team, just trying to be the best fans we can be.”

According to Reidling there has been a lack of school spirit.

“People don’t naturally want to show as much support as these programs deserve, or have as much fun as they could have,” he said.

Reidling believes this lack of support stems from an event that happened over a decade ago.

“They made the school change their mascot. It upset a lot of students, people still talk about it on twitter,” he said.

At the turn of the millennia there began a nationwide movement by the NCAA sports program which targeted schools with names or mascots that could be considered offensive to native americans. By 2005, 18 schools were told to change their mascots, while only eight other schools were able to keep their native american mascot.

MSU administrators attempted to appeal the ruling by showing letters from local tribes who supported the mascot, the ‘Indians,’ but it was considered to be too generic to be claimed by any single tribe.

Since then, Reidling claimed, school spirit has never been as high.

“People were upset. Alumni were angry and stopped feeling any kind of attachment,” he said. “I think a lot of the alumni still are upset about it, and people aren’t supporting the Mustang. Since they are graduated, it’s not as bad, but it has really hurt school spirit in students at MSU today. I think that changing the mascot definitely hurt the school and removed some of the traditions, but it didn’t need to gut the school the way that it has, more than a decade later.”

The Stang Gang is the most recent attempt to restore school spirit, but it was not the first.

The athletic department created a similar group, the “Mustang Maniacs,” in 2012, attempting to fix the lack of school spirit, but it never caught on and soon died out.

“We are trying again with the Stang Gang,” said Reidling. “The athletic department has done a good thing and backed the group, now we as students are trying to make it our own and help us grow.”

Recently however the group has run into opposition.

At the basketball game against longtime rivals Tarleton State, the Gang was told by a peace officer that if they didn’t have a seat and stay quiet, they would be removed from the game.

“They got mad that four people were standing and that wasn’t ok with people,” Reidling said. “They said they couldn’t see the game. We were standing at the very far side of the court, out of the way, and we were hoping to encourage others to stand up and be as vocal as fans are at other sports games, but people were apparently upset. It was pretty discouraging.”

Although Reidling thinks last weeks game was the worst event they’ve attended as far as successfully raising school spirit, he said he is hopeful for the future.

“We are meeting with administrators right now, trying to set up a plan, and try to raise the school spirit,” he said. “We can help, but we can’t do it alone. The athletic department and student affairs have been really helpful.”

The group was received extemely well by the football crowd, and by tailgating crowds outside of games. But inside, spirit runs dry.

“I think people just don’t realize how much fun Midwestern basketball can be,” Reidling added.

While they faced some scrutiny last week, some students are happy with what the group is trying to accomplish.

“Until things change it’s unlikely I will ever attend a basketball game at MSU again,” said Cole Davis, a business freshman. “Basketball games I’ve been to anywhere else are louder than even football games. fans get rowdy everywhere else, but here they just sit down and watch the game like it’s a funeral. It’s impossible to enjoy yourself.”

Davis said that if the Stang Gang is trying to change things, he would be more likely to attend events.

“If people will get hyped and look alive, absolutely, I would love to go to more games,” he said. “Hasn’t happened so far.”

Brittany Hess, business freshman, saw the Gang at the Tarleton game, and believed that they  should not have been reprimanded.

“I went to highschool in dallas, and there everyone was as loud as they were,” Hess said. “I would’ve joined with [the Gang], but I was in the middle of the seating, and I wouldn’t gotten bad looks. People are not wanting anyone to cause a ruckus, and will complain about it.”

RELATED: Stang Gang tries to advance school spirit on Campus Watch by Mark Campbell