Heavy rain may end up being the biggest variable in Starkville on Friday night, but Alabama still has to sort out a few other familiar road-test issues before it ever gets to the field.
The weather has already started reshaping football plans across Mississippi. High schools around the state in MHSAA and MAIS moved their games from Oct. 2 to Thursday, Oct. 1, and AccuWeather is calling for a 77% chance of rain ahead of Friday afternoon, with heavy showers and thunderstorms in the mix. Saturday does not look much friendlier, either, with the entire southeast expected to get drenched this weekend.
That kind of forecast naturally puts a spotlight on the game itself, especially with Keelon Russell and Kamario drawing attention as the matchup everyone wants to see. Russell has been electric through four games, posting an EPA/play of 0.51 and an EPA/pass of 0.41 while completing 69.4% of his throws, according to Hudl IQ. He’s averaging 14.3 yards per completion and producing chunk pass plays 29.1% of the time, with explosive plays on 11.9% of all completions.
The numbers only get more striking when you look at how he’s doing it. Russell’s 7.4% completion percentage over expectation shows he’s not just cashing in on easy looks; he’s been making difficult throws and connecting anyway. Four games into his first season, those are the kinds of numbers that stand out anywhere, and they’re already putting him ahead of more experienced SEC quarterbacks such as Texas’ Arch Manning, LSU’s Sam Leavitt and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, while also outpacing Oklahoma’s John Mateer and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed.
If the rain does show up in force, Mississippi State’s grass field at least gives the game a fighting chance to handle it. Still, wet conditions bring their own problems, from randomness to injury risk, and that’s before you even get to the noise.
And in Starkville, the noise always comes up.
“You hear them for awhile,” Alabama defensive back and Mississippi native Bray Hubbard said. “Defensively, we really don’t have to worry about it much.
If they gain a couple yards, they’re going to ring them. If they gain 10 yards, they’re going to ring them.
No matter what, they’re going to ring them.
“That’s kind of their way of yelling is ringing cowbells.”
Kedrick Bingley-Jones knows exactly what that environment feels like. He spent two seasons at Mississippi State before transferring to Alabama, so the cowbells are not some mystery to him.
“I try to tell my teammates you really can’t simulate it,” Bingley-Jones said. “It’s going to be loud.
It’s going to be a hostile environment. I mean, we just have to keep our composure and be able to go in and execute.”
The SEC allows Mississippi State fans, and only Mississippi State fans, to use noisemakers in their home stadium, a tradition that becomes a much bigger conversation when the Bulldogs are competitive.
Alabama is also dealing with a travel wrinkle that has drawn some questions. The Tide are planning to drive to Starkville on Saturday morning instead of making the trip Friday, but the players don’t sound rattled by it.
“We’re a morning practice team, so I don’t think it’s going to affect us as much as people are worrying about right now,” Bingley-Jones said. “We have to do what we have to do. I don’t feel like it’s going to affect us as much as people think it’s going to.”
Rico Scott made a similar comparison to another road routine Alabama already knows well.
“We’re used to it. We practice in the morning, so it won’t be a big deal,” wide receiver Rico Scott said.
“It’s the same as going from Montgomery to Auburn. We’ve done it before.
This is the first time we’ve played at Mississippi State since I’ve been here, but it’s the same as Auburn.”
The commute from Columbus, MS would only add about an hour compared with where Alabama would likely stay otherwise. There was also mention that other schools have sometimes stayed in Tuscaloosa for trips to Mississippi State in the past, when Alabama was out of town and hotel space was open, though Columbus does not offer exactly four-star accommodations.
Bingley-Jones also had a personal note worth keeping in mind when he was asked why he wears No. 22.
“This has been the standard of college football for so many years. I was a fan when I was little,” he said. “I had a Mark Ingram jersey, that’s why I wear No. 22, so it was an opportunity I could not pass up.”
He said he missed his chance to meet Ingram last weekend in Tuscaloosa, when Ingram was honored for his upcoming induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
“I saw him in the tunnel, but we were already running out. I wish I could’ve shaken his hand. Being a Bama fan, and a Saints fan also, he was an idol for me for sure,” Bingley-Jones said.
That man is a Gump, folks.
Elsewhere in the program, Alabama basketball guard Aden Holloway had a charge tied to a drug arrest in March 2026 dropped. Holloway, a rising senior, entered a second-chance program after his March arrest for marijuana possession and has met the requirements for his first degree marijuana charge to be dismissed, according to court documents from Monday, Sept. 28.
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