By Lauren King | Playbook
The 2026 football season is off to an exciting start, and if you live in Mississippi, there is plenty to talk about.
From legal battles and emotional games to hometown quarterbacks, former coaches and teams making noise in the Southeastern Conference, Mississippi football has already given us plenty of storylines.
The Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs are taking very different paths this season, but both programs have one thing in common: There is plenty of attention on what happens next.
So, let’s talk about it.
The Ole Miss Rebels
Let’s start with the Ole Miss Rebels.
To understand where Ole Miss is now, we have to take a quick look back at last season.
The Rebels finished 13-2 under head coach Lane Kiffin and quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, earning a spot in the College Football Playoff. The season ended with Ole Miss falling to Miami in the CFP semifinal.
Then came one of the biggest coaching surprises of the offseason.
Kiffin left Ole Miss to become the head coach at SEC rival LSU. LSU’s contract with Kiffin calls for $400,000 in annual base salary plus $12.6 million in supplemental compensation, with additional provisions tied to a College Football Playoff championship. (LSU)
Ole Miss entered the 2026 season under first-year head coach Pete Golding, with Chambliss back under center after his fight for another year of eligibility.
And what a start it has been.
The Rebels opened the season 3-0, including an emotional 32-24 victory over LSU in Week 3, putting Chambliss and his former coach on opposite sides of the field.
Then came the first setback.
Ole Miss traveled to Gainesville on Sept. 26 and fell to No. 21 Florida, 52-28. The Rebels entered the game ranked No. 4 nationally and left with their first loss of the season. Chambliss still accounted for more than 300 yards of total offense in the game. (Ole Miss Athletics – Hotty Toddy)
So now the question becomes simple: How does Ole Miss respond?
The Rebels still have plenty of football ahead of them, but the margin for error gets smaller as the SEC schedule continues.
And with Chambliss playing his final season in Oxford, every Saturday carries a little more weight.
Trinidad Chambliss
Before Chambliss could even take the field for Ole Miss in 2026, he had to win a battle away from the football field.
The quarterback spent much of the offseason fighting for another year of eligibility.
Chambliss sought a sixth year after losing a season at Division II Ferris State. He argued that medical issues prevented him from competing during the 2022 season and that he should have received a medical redshirt.
The NCAA denied his request in January.
Chambliss and his legal team then took the case to Mississippi state court. In February, Lafayette County Chancery Court Judge Robert Whitwell issued an injunction allowing Chambliss to play during the 2026 season. The NCAA had argued that its eligibility decision followed its rules, while Chambliss’ legal team argued that the NCAA had failed to properly consider the medical evidence surrounding his 2022 season. (Washington Post)
The NCAA later appealed, but Chambliss remained eligible for the 2026 season. (Yahoo Sports)
That decision changed everything.
Instead of preparing for the NFL, Chambliss returned to Oxford for one more season.
And he wasted little time reminding everyone why his return mattered.
His performance in the Rebels’ Week 3 victory over LSU pushed him into the national Heisman Trophy conversation. Reuters reported that Chambliss’ Heisman odds rose sharply following the victory, putting him among the leading candidates at that point in the season. (Reuters)
Then Florida arrived.
Chambliss completed 25 of 34 passes for 298 yards and three total touchdowns, but Ole Miss could not keep pace with the Gators’ rushing attack in the 52-28 loss. (https://www.wdam.com)
Now, the storyline gets even more interesting.
Can Chambliss respond?
Can he regain the form that made him one of the most talked-about quarterbacks in college football?
And can Ole Miss put the Florida loss behind it?
We are about to find out.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs
Now, let’s head north to Starkville.
If Ole Miss has been dealing with change and drama, Mississippi State has been building something that suddenly has people paying attention.
The Bulldogs entered the 2026 season with plenty of questions surrounding the direction of the program.
Instead, they have answered many of them on the field.
Mississippi State opened the season with a 62-13 win over Louisiana-Monroe, setting a school record with 762 yards of total offense. Quarterback Kamario Taylor accounted for 413 total yards and five touchdowns in his first start. (Southeastern Conference)
The Bulldogs followed that with victories over Minnesota and South Carolina.
Then came Missouri.
On Sept. 26, Mississippi State defeated No. 19 Missouri 31-24 at a packed Davis Wade Stadium, improving to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in SEC play. (Mississippi State)
Suddenly, the conversation around Starkville has changed.
The Bulldogs are not simply trying to get the program headed in the right direction.
They are already making noise.
And now comes Alabama.
The Crimson Tide visits Starkville on Oct. 3, giving Mississippi State another major opportunity to show what this team can do against one of the SEC’s most recognizable programs. Mississippi State’s official schedule lists Alabama’s visit for Saturday, Oct. 3. (Mississippi State)
The cowbells are going to be loud.
You can count on that.
Kamario Taylor
At the center of Mississippi State’s turnaround is a quarterback who grew up just down the road.
Kamario Taylor was born in Macon, Mississippi, and grew up dreaming about playing for Mississippi State.
Now, he is living that dream.
The 6-foot-4 sophomore became the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback this season and immediately gave Mississippi State fans something to get excited about.
In his first career start against ULM, Taylor threw for 354 yards and four touchdowns while adding 59 rushing yards and another touchdown. (Mississippi State)
But the numbers are only part of the story.
Taylor’s Mississippi roots have made his rise especially meaningful to Bulldog fans.
He grew up attending games at Davis Wade Stadium. Now, he is the one standing in the middle of the field with thousands of fans watching him.
And the attention has only grown.
Mississippi State entered its Sept. 26 matchup with Missouri ranked No. 24 nationally, while Taylor had emerged as one of the quarterbacks drawing national attention early in the season. (Mississippi State)
Taylor and the Bulldogs responded by beating Missouri 31-24.
Now they get Alabama.
That is the kind of game that can make a season feel even bigger.
For Taylor, though, the message has remained pretty simple.
Starkville is home.
And he wants to be the quarterback who helps Mississippi State build something special.
Putting Mississippi on the Map
So here we are.
Two Mississippi SEC programs.
Two quarterbacks with very different stories.
One quarterback fought through a legal battle just to get another opportunity to play college football.
Another grew up in Mississippi dreaming about becoming the starting quarterback at his home-state school.
And both are now leading teams that have plenty of people watching.
Ole Miss is trying to regroup after its first loss of the season.
Mississippi State is 4-0 and preparing for Alabama.
Chambliss is trying to put together one more memorable season in Oxford.
Taylor is helping write the beginning of what Mississippi State hopes becomes a new chapter in Starkville.
That’s what makes college football so much fun.
The season rarely follows the script we think it will.
For Mississippi football fans, there is still a whole lot of football left to play.
And if the first few weeks are any indication, there is going to be plenty more to talk about.
Stay tuned.
