If September was an intense warmup work out for Alabama, October provides the stage for a full-on sprint for a Crimson Tide team with 4 wins under its belt and a lot more notches still to gain.
Bama will have to blitz through what on paper looks like 4 grueling tests before it gets to take Halloween week off. This stretch that will undoubtedly define what the Tide are playing for in November ends with Texas A&M, with bitter rivals Tennessee and Georgia thrown into the October mayhem.
But before Kalen DeBoer‘s 7th-ranked team gets to those perennial-powerhouse Bulldogs, it’ll have to deal with the Bulldogs from Starkville who’ve quickly become one of the best early stories of the 2026 season. Mississippi State isn’t just worthy of attention for a change; it’s 4-0 just like Bama, ranked 16th and has one of the hottest quarterbacks in the sport in Kamario Taylor.
Everyone is talking about Taylor, and the Tide will have to account for his burgeoning excellence on Saturday in the noon ET kickoff on ABC. But there are other challenges waiting for Alabama after its early wakeup call for the 11 a.m. local start, and here are 3 things Bama will have to overcome to beat Mississippi State:
1. Keelon Russell must better handle the road — and all those cowbells
Look, the redshirt freshman has been mostly remarkable so far for the Tide. His September body of work speaks for itself, especially playing in the pressure cooker at Alabama and being a first-year starter. Russell’s 89.0 QBR is ranked 7th in the country, he’s already thrown for 1,129 yards and has 8 touchdown passes to just 2 interceptions.
Russell is completing a hair under 71% of his passes, and he’s flashed that brilliance with his legs that helped him beat out Austin Mack for the starting job in fall camp, piling up 168 yards rushing and 3 TDs. A scintillating 57-yard scoring run against Florida State was one of his early career signature plays, and not much more could’ve been asked of the young signal-caller in September.
But 3 of Bama’s 4 games last month were played in the friendly confines of Bryant-Denny Stadium. Russell’s QBR in those 3 home victories were 83.0 in the season opener against East Carolina, 96.7 in Week 3 vs. FSU and 98.3 in last week’s blowout of South Carolina. That’s all great, but this Saturday’s game isn’t in the friendly confines, and Russell’s QBR in Alabama’s one road game against Kentucky back in Week 2 was a measly 43.9.
Those QBR splits are drastic from home to road, and though it’s just a small sample size, right now it’s all we have to go on with Russell. He managed just 188 yards passing in Lexington, the lone time this season he’s been held under 200 yards, and his 1 TD pass came with 2 picks, one of which was returned for a touchdown and put the Tide in an early 7-0 hole.
With Russell driving Bama into Kentucky territory on its next possession, he promptly fumbled the ball away to the Wildcats, spoiling the drive and setting a bad early tone in his first career road start and first career SEC start. That dynamic dual-threat ability that Russell has flashed so often this season was also non-existent, as he finished with negative rushing yards.
Now, Russell recovered from all of that and so did Alabama, as the Tide ambushed the Wildcats in a 32-0 2nd-half tidal wave. Bama won easily, 45-17, and the fact that Russell was able to tune out the crowd noise in enemy territory and play better as the game went along says something about his makeup and resilience.
Perhaps that road baptism in Lexington will prepare him to be better from the jump amid the noise and that countless sea of cowbells that awaits on Saturday in Starkville. He’ll be facing a Mississippi State defense that’s starting to believe, in a stadium full of long-suffering fans who are starting to believe and, yes, it’s going to be really loud despite the really early start at Davis Wade Stadium.
Will Russell be better on the road the 2nd time, with his counterpart, Kamario Taylor, capable of stealing the spotlight and the game? We’re going to learn a lot early, and we’re going to find out what Russell has learned.
2. Shore up that run D, because Fluff Bothwell is dangerous
Mississippi State’s meteoric rise isn’t all born from Kamario Taylor. How could it be? There are other dangerous parts, and surely one of them is the junior Bothwell, a former high school star from the state of Alabama. Bothwell played at Oneonta High School, which is about an hour and a half from Tuscaloosa.
After staying in-state and playing his first season of college ball at South Alabama, earning 3rd-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors, Bothwell branched out for a much bigger challenge in heading to the SEC and Mississippi State for the 2025 season. He was up to that challenge, registering 677 yards and 6 touchdowns, but the 5-foot-10, 230-pounder whose real first name is Da’Marion has taken his game to yet another level.
After rushing for 52 yards on just 9 carries in a Week 1 blowout of Louisiana-Monroe that didn’t call for him to play the entire game, all Bothwell has done the past 3 weeks is rush for 113 yards in Week 2 at Minnesota, 115 yards in Week 3 at South Carolina and 122 yards last week at home against Mizzou. He’s already eclipsed 400 yards for the season, sitting at 402 to rank 2nd in the SEC through Week 4, and he’s averaging 5.5 yards per carry with 3 touchdowns.
Bothwell showed last week against Mizzou that he can do some damage out of the backfield, too, catching 6 passes for 55 yards and a touchdown. If Taylor is the engine of Mississippi State’s offense, Bothwell is a very key cog, and he’ll challenge Kane Wommack’s sometimes formidable rush defense just like Taylor will from under center.
That Bama rush defense smothered East Carolina in Week 1, holding the Pirates to exactly 2 yards on the ground, and largely did the same to Kentucky in Week 2, when the Cats managed just 63 yards rushing. While Wommack’s pass D was shredded in Week 3 against Florida State, the Noles were kept just under 100 yards on the ground by Bama in what was a track-meet game.
All good, right? Well, not last week despite blowing out South Carolina. Even in a game that Alabama won comfortably, the Tide allowed the Gamecocks to rush for 216 yards while averaging 5.4 yards per carry. South Carolina kept pounding Bama, running it 40 times, and while it didn’t translate into even a competitive night in Tuscaloosa, the damage done by the Gamecocks has no doubt made it into Mississippi State’s film room this week.
Having grown up in Alabama and having this national stage on Saturday, Bothwell no doubt has this one circled. If Taylor can’t beat Bama himself, then he can call on Bothwell to help him do it.
Prediction Markets Alabama at Mississippi State Learn more about Prediction Markets Kalshi Alabama 67% Mississippi St. 33% Predict3. Kamario Taylor’s burgeoning belief in himself and his team
This early October SEC ranked clash is about a lot of things, including Mississippi State’s fierce determination to prove it’s for real. But let’s face it, the storyline of this game is centered around Taylor. Because, for a change, Keelon Russell won’t be the only young quarterback phenom on the field.
He’ll share that label with Taylor on Saturday, and Taylor knows his rise to college football stardom is directly tied to what happens against arguably the biggest brand name in the sport. Taylor has already thrown for 1,192 yards in only 4 games with 14 touchdown passes and just 2 interceptions. He’s completing 69.2% of his passes, and he’s already carried it 37 times for 185 yards with 1 rushing TD.
Taylor was a high school star in Macon, Mississippi, and his collegiate stardom in the state is rising by the week. Kane Wommack is already 4 games into his 3rd season as Alabama’s defensive coordinator, so he’s faced a lot of good opposing quarterbacks while coaching the Tide, but on Monday during his session with reporters he actually said that Taylor “may be the best” quarterback that he’s faced since taking the Bama job.
In the past month, Taylor has gone from raw talent to SEC revelation. This is Mississippi State, where football success is fleeting. Right now, the unbeaten Bulldogs are living large with a quarterback who’s becoming larger than life, in Starkville and just about everywhere.
If Taylor can somehow will his team to a win over mighty Alabama, just imagine what planet he’ll be living on come Monday morning.
But if the Tide are going to turn back Mississippi State and squash its early season darling status, they must turn away Taylor and put a dent in his ever-growing belief.
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