Alabama Football 2026: Previewing the Mississippi State Offense

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Man, it’s been a while, huh? The Bulldogs are now rolling into year 3 with Jeff Lebby as their head coach, and this is just now the first time I’m previewing him as a head coach. The last time we saw him, he was still an OC for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss in 2020-2021.

Lebby’s had an impressive short career as an offensive coordinator, putting together some nice offenses at UCF and Ole Miss , then doing fairly well for a couple of seasons in Oklahoma before landing the head coaching job at Miss State.

Lebby ultimately got his start at Baylor under Art Briles, where he learned that famous veer-and-shoot offense based on the inverted veer rushing attack and a lot of vertical passing. He was there for 8 years serving multiple roles until the 2015 scandal, where he was one of the coaches named in the lawsuit and ultimately left the Bears before catching on with Josh Heupel at UCF and then Kiffin at Ole Miss.

Things were pretty rough in the first two years at MSU, scoring only 25.8 points per game in a 2 win season in his first year. There was some improvement a year ago as the Dogs improved to 5-8, scoring a more respectable 30.4 points per game.

This year, though, things are looking different. MSU is scoring 43 points per game, hanging 41 points on South Carolina and 31 points on Missouri already. A big part of that has been the emergence of sophomore QB Kamario Taylor. He was a top-80 recruit in the 2025 class that was viewed as a guy that was a “lottery ticket” for his upside, and the Dogs seem like they may have hit on that ticket. Taylor’s quickly getting into the forefront of national attention with 1200 passing yards, 14 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, and another 185 yards on the ground through just 4 games.

He’s huge, he’s fast, and he’s got an amazing arm with a penchant for attacking deep down the field. In short, he’s about as exciting of a QB as you’ll find, and the optimism surrounding him is sky high.

He’s got a nice crew of receivers, too. Anthony Evans, a former Georgia transfer and multi-year kick/punt return man, already has 408 yards this season after a nice 831 yards season with the Dogs a year ago. He’s Taylor’s favorite target, and he’s got the speed to burn anyone down the field. Then there’s the 6’2” Sanfrisco Magee, who’s emerging as a 3rd year player who can also get downfield in a hurry. And Missouri transfer Marquis Johnson is 4-year SEC contributor with a long history of being a speedy deep threat with admittedly suspect hands.

While their passing game has been explosive, the MSU offensive line hasn’t been the best at pass blocking. The tackles have gotten Taylor in trouble fairly often, and he’s made a lot of his production on either launching a deep ball early in the play or just taking off upfield.

To me, though, what’s even more worrying than the Bulldog passing game is running back Fluff Bothwell. He was a 800 yard rusher for South Alabama as a freshman before transferring to MSU a year ago, and he racked up 677 yards on 4.8 yards per carry in his first year in the SEC. This year? He’s already at 402 yards on 5.5 yards per carry. He’s 5’10” 220, and seems to be able to wiggle his way out of nearly any tackle attempt. Think you have him stopped on a 3rd down checkdown for 4 yards? Think again, because he just twisted around and somehow turned it into 9 yards. He’s not the fastest player, but he’s got a choppy running style with crazy start and stop acceleration that makes him a nightmare to tackle.

This matchup worries me. Alabama’s defense has struggled with deep balls the last two weeks, and they haven’t been the best at cleaning up QB runs, either. Where the Tide defense is one of the best in college football at stopping RPOs and short-to-medium passing, the Lebby Veer-and-Shoot with Kamario Taylor’s style is much more attacking the weaknesses of the Alabama scheme, which tends to use a single high safety.

The more I’ve thought about this one, the more I don’t like it for the Tide defense. I wouldn’t be surprised is MSU puts up 31-34 points on them.

Let’s hope not…. but if they do, here’s to hoping the Alabama offense can outscore them.

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