Kamario Taylor’s start at Mississippi State has been impossible to ignore, and now Nick Saban has said the quiet part out loud.
The Bulldogs are 3-0, and Taylor has been the driving force behind it. Through three games, he has thrown for 832 yards and 11 touchdowns while also adding 178 rushing yards and another score on the ground. That production has helped push Mississippi State to a No. 24 national ranking and has Taylor standing out as one of the country’s top underclassmen quarterbacks.
That kind of early surge comes with a modern college football wrinkle: the NIL and transfer landscape. Taylor could eventually hit the portal in 2027 and command a major payday, and Saban suggested that’s exactly the kind of player coaches should be thinking about right now.
“If I was coaching right now, I'd be trying to get Kamario Taylor to get into the portal,” Saban said on ESPN.
For Mississippi State, that’s not exactly comforting. The program may eventually have to dig deep financially just to have a shot at keeping him in Starkville.
Taylor’s value is only getting louder with each game, and Saturday night against Missouri gives him another chance to keep building that buzz. The schedule only gets more demanding after that. In October, Mississippi State faces Alabama at home, LSU on the road, Oklahoma at home, and Texas away from home.
If Taylor keeps producing through that stretch, the Heisman conversation could come with it. For now, he still has plenty to prove, but Saban’s comments made one thing clear: after three games, the college football world is already treating Taylor like a name to circle.
In Other News...
Mississippi State Just Lost A Former Commit In Florida's Backyard
A former Mississippi State commitment has landed much closer to home, as four-star safety Cyion Smith announced he is headed to Florida for the 2028 season. Smith, an in-state recruit from Blountstown, reopened his recruitment in May before taking a scholarship offer from the Gators, giving Florida a win on a prospect the Bulldogs once had in their class.
The timing only sharpened the spotlight, with Smith's commitment coming on the same day Florida hosted Ole Miss at The Swamp. For Mississippi State, it is another reminder of how quickly recruiting momentum can shift once a prospect starts weighing familiar ground against an SEC offer, and the Bulldogs now have to turn the page on a player who looked like part of their future not long ago. [Read more 🡒]
Kamario Taylors Week 4 Hype Just Set Up A Big Debate
Week 4s fantasy chatter has put a spotlight on Kamario Taylor as Mississippi State keeps sorting out what it can expect from its passing game. Among the weekend projections floating around, Taylors passing-yard total is the one drawing the most attention because it comes with a ceiling that reflects both his recent trend and the challenge of the defense he is set to face.
For the Bulldogs, the bigger question is less about a single prediction and more about what Taylors role looks like as the season settles in. If the matchup plays out the way the numbers suggest, Mississippi State may have to lean on efficiency and balance rather than volume, leaving Taylor in the middle of a debate that could shape how the offense is viewed going forward. [Read more 🡒]
Mississippi State Finally Gets A Week 4 Test Fans Can Believe In
Mississippi States Week 4 trip through the SEC is suddenly carrying a little more weight, and not just because the Bulldogs are getting one of the better early-season measuring sticks on the schedule. With ranked games dotting the country, including heavyweight showdowns in the SEC and Big Ten, there is no shortage of results that could shape the postseason conversation before the calendar even turns fully to conference play.
Missouris visit to Starkville stands out because it gives Mississippi State a chance to see where it really stacks up against a team with its own ambitions. In a week packed with attention-grabbing matchups like Texas-Tennessee, Ole Miss-Florida and LSU-Texas A&M, this one has a place in the same bigger picture: a test with real implications, the kind that can validate an early run or expose how much work still remains. [Read more 🡒]