Kamario Taylor has become one of college football’s breakout names, but his path could have looked a lot different if basketball had won out.
Before he was turning heads on the gridiron, Taylor was doing a little bit of everything at Noxubee County High School. He played football, basketball and baseball, and he also ran track before eventually growing into his frame and settling in as a quarterback. At 6-foot-4, he has the kind of size that would have fit right in among top college basketball guards, and the raw athleticism that made him a prospect in multiple sports.
Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby said the first time he ever saw Taylor was on a basketball court, shortly after taking the Bulldogs job.
"I walked in the gym there at Noxubee County, and that was the first time I had met him," Lebby said, via the Clarion Ledger. "He was shooting it around and throwing it down in slides and I told him, 'Quit playing basketball, young man.'"
Taylor’s mother has also pointed to that same athletic edge as the reason he could handle so many sports at once.
"He's a freak athlete," she said. "When they say that, it's true."
Taylor’s basketball run was brief, but it still left behind a few eye-catching moments. He flashed that explosiveness with a handful of dunks that made the rounds and showed just how easily his athletic gifts translated to the hardwood.
His high school basketball numbers, though, suggest why football eventually became the clear path. According to Max Preps, Taylor scored seven points in two games during the 2021-22 varsity basketball season, then did not appear in any games over the next two seasons.
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LSU Fans Will Recognize The Recruiting Path Behind Mississippi States New QB
Kamario Taylors path to Mississippi State looks familiar to anyone who watched Dak Prescotts rise in Starkville. Both quarterbacks arrived without the kind of national buzz that usually follows a SEC starter-in-waiting, and both ended up finding their way to Mississippi State after college recruiting took them on a route that was not exactly linear. For a program that has long valued development as much as pure pedigree, the comparison makes sense before Taylor has even had much time to settle in.
Prescott turned that under-the-radar arrival into a breakout 2014 season and eventually a career that carried him all the way to the NFL. Taylor is still at the point where the story is being written, but his emergence as the starting quarterback invites the same kind of conversation Mississippi State fans know well, especially when a familiar recruiting trail seems to be leading toward another opportunity to prove doubters wrong. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Fans Will Notice What Saban Is Saying Before Alabama
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Georgia fans listening closely will notice the bigger picture in Sabans comments, because Alabamas trip to Mississippi State comes before a much larger showdown on the calendar. For the Bulldogs, it is another sign that opponents are taking the current team seriously, and for everyone else it is a reminder that Starkville can still turn a routine week into a difficult one. [Read more 🡒]
Mississippi State Plays In College Footballs Brightest Spotlight
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For Mississippi State, that spotlight is part opportunity and part pressure. The SEC remains the sports biggest draw, and the Bulldogs are competing in a league where the most-watched games are rarely isolated from the rest of the conversation, especially when neighboring rivals are pulling huge audiences of their own. Texas-Ohio State topped the months ratings, while Ole Misss win over LSU came in second, another reminder that the conferences biggest stages tend to magnify everything around them, including the road Mississippi State is trying to carve out. [Read more 🡒]