Auburn shows up in Starkville as basically a brand-new program, and Mississippi State is desperate for this one not to look like the same team that fell apart last fall.
Bush’s Picks
AUBMSST
AUBMSST
OverUnder
Best BetAuburn
Auburn brings the more explosive engine into this one, with Golesh importing an offense that led the country in total yardage at USF and a quarterback who accounted for 42 touchdowns last year. Mississippi State's defense got exposed repeatedly during last season's 1-7 SEC collapse, and there's no evidence yet the roster overhaul fixed that. Back Auburn to win outright even on the road.
Auburn
+New coach Golesh ran No. 2 scoring offense at USF
+QB Brown produced 42 total TDs last season
+Cam Coleman is an elite returning receiving weapon
−Entirely new coaching staff installing a scheme from scratch
−QB and much of roster are all new transfers
−2026 recruiting class ranked just No. 36 nationally
Mississippi State
+Kamario Taylor returns with rare starting-QB continuity
−Finished 5-7 with a brutal 1-7 SEC stretch in 2025
−Lebby reportedly needs a big jump to save his job
−Blown out in both the Egg Bowl and bowl game
Auburn's rebuild starts for real the moment Byrum Brown takes the season into November. Alex Golesh, hired away from South Florida after Auburn fired Hugh Freeze following a 15-19 run, brought his own quarterback along for the ride. Brown threw for 3,158 yards and ran for another 1,008 at USF last season, a dual-threat profile Auburn hasn't had running its offense in years, and by mid-November this is the version of Auburn worth watching: whatever Golesh's install looks like once it's had a full season to marinate.
On the other sideline, Mississippi State enters with more continuity at the position that matters most. Kamario Taylor took over as starter last year and made it through the Egg Bowl and the Duke's Mayo Bowl, giving Jeff Lebby something Auburn doesn't have: a quarterback who's actually played meaningful snaps in this offense before. That stability matters because nearly everything else on the roster got rebuilt this offseason, with close to two dozen transfer additions patching holes across the two-deep.
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AUB Auburn
MSST Mississippi State
None of that portal activity changes the version of Mississippi State everybody watched implode last fall, a 4-0 start that cratered into a 1-7 stretch through SEC play, a 5-7 finish, and a bowl loss that buried any goodwill from September. Lebby is out of runway if that pattern repeats, and a home loss to a first-year Auburn staff in November would be exactly the kind of result that gets a coach's name trending for the wrong reasons.
Auburn Tigers
Nov 6?vs Arkansas—
Oct 30?@ Ole Miss—
Oct 16?@ Georgia—
Oct 2?@ Tennessee—
Sep 25?vs Vanderbilt—
Sep 19?vs Florida—
Sep 12?vs Southern Miss—
Sep 5?vs Baylor—
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Nov 6?vs Vanderbilt—
Oct 30?@ Texas—
Oct 16?@ LSU—
Oct 2?vs Alabama—
Sep 25?vs Missouri—
Sep 19?@ South Carolina—
Sep 12?@ Minnesota—
Sep 5?vs UL Monroe—
Recent form.
Auburn strolls into Starkville holding a lopsided all-time series edge, having won 66 of 96 meetings, but history means nothing when neither roster resembles what it looked like the last time these two played. Cam Coleman remains the one proven building block on Auburn's side, a receiver talented enough to be the headline of the entire offseason cycle, but he's catching passes from a quarterback he's never played alongside in a live SEC snap.
Auburn Tigers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Mississippi State Bulldogs
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Golesh's teams at USF tended to find their rhythm as the season wore on, not in September, which is exactly why a mid-November trip to face a desperate, defense-starved Mississippi State team could be the moment this Auburn offense starts looking like the finished product it's built to become.
