Taylor locked in as starter, offensive line still the worry
Kamario Taylor's job is set on paper now, but a line that allowed 45 sacks last season is the real test as Mississippi State opens its year against Louisiana-Monroe.
Taylor's audition is over — tonight it's just football
The quarterback battle that was never really a battle is now official on paper too. Mississippi State's Week 1 depth chart, released this week, lists Kamario Taylor as the outright starter over Louisiana-Monroe, per Yahoo Sports and 247Sports — the job now a matter of record, not just camp buzz. Taylor made 2 starts last season, both losses, but appeared in 11 games as a true freshman behind Blake Shapen before Jeff Lebby handed him the offense for the Egg Bowl. Lebby hasn't backed off an inch of the praise he gave Taylor in Tampa this summer. "This guy is special, special," he told ESPN's Pete Thamel. "I don't think he has a ceiling."
What Lebby has actually spent camp worrying about is what happens in front of Taylor. Mississippi State's offensive line allowed 45 sacks last season, the fourth-worst mark in all of FBS, and depth up front was the single biggest theme of the coach's first camp availability, per the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. Anthony Evans III, who tied for third in the SEC in catches with 67 a year ago, gives Taylor a proven outlet no matter what the protection looks like — but a first career win, not just a first career start, is still the actual assignment tonight.
Last season ended on a 4-game slide — and Taylor's audition was in the middle of it
Mississippi State's 2025 season had one real high point in its final stretch — a 38-35 road win over Arkansas on November 1 — and then closed on 4 straight losses: 21-41 at home to Georgia, 27-49 at Missouri, 19-38 in the Egg Bowl to Ole Miss, and 29-43 to Wake Forest in the bowl game on January 3. That Egg Bowl loss is where Taylor got his first career start in Shapen's place, and the bowl loss is where he made his second — so last season's finish and this season's quarterback plan are the same story told from opposite ends.
None of that carries into 2026 as form; the record is 0-0 and there's no run to point to yet. But it's the backdrop for everything Lebby has built this offseason — the transfer additions up front, the decision to bring cornerback Kelley Jones back instead of letting him leave early, the fact that this program hasn't strung together consecutive wins since October. A clean night against a rebuilding Sun Belt team wouldn't erase that stretch, but it would be the first sign this roster is better than the one that lost 4 in a row to end last season.
The Manning-Sylla freeze is now part of a conference-wide legal fight, and Mississippi's own AG is in it
Nine days ago this was the best kind of surprise a fall camp could produce — safety Jahron Manning and edge rusher Malick Sylla back on campus with fifth years restored by a Colorado district court ruling, first reported by On3's Pete Nakos and confirmed by ESPN's Pete Thamel. It doesn't look that way anymore. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a stay of Judge Charlotte Sweeney's July 31 ruling in a 2-1 panel decision, freezing the nationwide injunction and making both players ineligible to suit up for the Bulldogs again for now, per 247Sports.
That same eligibility fight widened this week into something bigger than one roster. The SEC sued LSU in Alabama federal court, alleging the school ran a "deliberate and coordinated campaign" to recruit former pro players in defiance of the conference's new rule barring their return, per multiple reports. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has now weighed in on the Bulldogs' side of that same divide, backing Ole Miss and Mississippi State to do what's "necessary to protect the integrity of their programs and the integrity of the sport," as posted by ESPN's Ross Dellenger. It's the same legal question that's kept Manning and Sylla out of practice all camp, just being fought a state over now.
Lebby confirmed this week that both players are still around the building despite the freeze, but he's kept his answers careful. "Those two guys are back in the building but there is not too much to say besides that because they are not eligible," he said, adding they can't currently practice with the rest of the team. "They have to go through a process. Yes, they are back in the building. We will see how it all plays out," he told reporters, per 247Sports. Sylla's path back looks the cleaner of the two since he never signed with a pro team, while Manning attended the Atlanta Falcons' rookie minicamp and signed with the Indoor Football League's Orlando Pirates — a complication that survives even a favorable ruling. With 247Sports reporting the pair may have to file their own suit and that the process "will take months," it's very likely Starkville opens its season Saturday without either of them.
Mississippi State hasn't played this opponent since 1997
Tonight's opponent is one State hasn't lined up against in almost 3 decades. Louisiana-Monroe brings its most experienced quarterback in years in Aidan Armenta, now in his second full season as the starter after throwing for 1,629 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2025, with Nic Trujillo (4 touchdown catches) as his top target. Bryant Vincent's Warhawks have opened 3-1 or better in each of his first two seasons in Monroe, and linebacker Noah Flemmings — 80 tackles and 11 tackles for loss a year ago — is on the Bednarik Award watchlist. Mississippi State opened as a 28.5-point favorite with the total set at 55.5, a line that says exactly how far apart an SEC program and a Sun Belt team chasing its first win over one since 2012 are seen to be.
A win wouldn't erase how last season ended, but it would be the first real sign this roster is better than the one that lost 4 straight to close out 2025. Kickoff is Saturday, September 5 at 6:30 PM in Starkville — the first data point of the Kamario Taylor era that actually lands in the win column, one way or another.