Mississippi State walks into Saturday with a quarterback situation that still isn’t settled, but Vanderbilt may be the more important problem to solve. The Commodores are headed to Starkville with their own uncertainty under center, and if AJ Swann is healthy enough to play, it adds another layer to a matchup that already has plenty of moving parts.
Swann, who started 12 games for Vanderbilt over his first two seasons before the programs split, watched the second half at Texas with his arm in a sling. Jeff Lebby still hasn’t picked a starter, and the reps are being divided among Swann, former walk-on Billy Puckett, Jaden Rashada - now on his fourth school - and freshman Brodie McWhorter.
Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea, who recruited Swann to Nashville, made it clear he’s paying attention to that injury situation.
“I hope AJ is healthy,” Lea said this week. “He’s someone that I built a relationship with in recruiting.”
However the Commodores sort out quarterback, Mississippi State gets a chance to stop the skid in front of a homecoming crowd. And one of the clearest places to start is on the ground, where the Bulldogs’ defense has already shown it can hold up.
Even in the 31-3 loss at Texas, Mississippi State’s defense wasn’t the issue. The Longhorns ran 32 times for only 60 yards, while the Bulldogs piled up five sacks and forced five three-and-outs. That lines up well against a Vanderbilt team that managed just 17 rushing attempts for 15 yards in its last game at Kentucky.
Senior linebacker Zakari Tillman said the focus this week is on how the team answers back.
“It’s all about how we respond as a team,” Tillman said.
The other big swing factor is Vanderbilt freshman quarterback Jared Curtis, who is a special talent but has also been living dangerously. He’s the highest-rated recruit in program history and the first Commodores quarterback to start as a true freshman since Swann. Curtis has thrown for 1,489 yards and eight touchdowns, but he also leads the SEC with eight interceptions.
That boom-or-bust profile showed up at Kentucky, where Vanderbilt leaned on him after the run game vanished and he completed 27 of 36 passes. Mississippi State’s pass rush was active against Texas, and if the Commodores again ask Curtis to shoulder everything, the Bulldogs should have a real shot at forcing mistakes.
The larger picture also points toward Mississippi State. Vanderbilt has dropped its five SEC games by an average of 18.4 points, and only the opener at Auburn was close. The Commodores haven’t beaten Mississippi State since 2004, and the Bulldogs took the last meeting in 2021.
After being beaten up by Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma and Texas, Mississippi State finally gets an opponent it can lean on. That should matter in Starkville, even with the quarterback questions still hanging over the game.
Lebby said this injury stretch has been unlike anything he has gone through.
“Haven’t lived anything like it, but we’re living it right now,” Lebby said.
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Kamario Taylors emergence this fall has given Mississippi State something every program wants and every roster now has to manage: a breakout quarterback whose value is rising fast. Around college football, players like Oregon States Jesse Legree are already shaping their futures with return decisions, and Taylor has become part of that same conversation after a strong run that put him on the radar well beyond Starkville. For the Bulldogs, it is the kind of development that can change the tone of an offseason before it even begins.
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Hubbards start carries a little extra weight because of where he sits in the program record chase, and Jans pointed to his leadership as part of what makes him such an important piece for this group. The next test comes quickly with Northwestern State, which is coming off a loss to Baylor, giving Mississippi State another chance to build on its opener while keeping an eye on a milestone that is starting to come into view. [Read more 🡒]