Keelon Russell vs. Kamario Taylor are the high-upside QBs fueling Alabama-Mississippi State
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Week 5 of the 2026 college football season has some massive games on the calendar. Fresh off a road stunner against Michigan, No. 14 Iowa looks to keep that going in Columbus against No. 5 Ohio State. Florida, now ranked No. 8 in the nation, faces a tough road test in Columbia against No. 25 Missouri.
And staying in the SEC, a rivalry game has the chance to shape not just the conference this season, but the quarterback landscape for the next few years.
Whether you call it the Battle for Highway 82, or the 90 Mile Drive, the clash between Alabama and Mississippi State is back on the SEC schedule for the first time since the 2023 season. This rivalry, one of the oldest in conference history, dates back to 1896, and has been dominated by the Crimson Tide. Alabama leads the series 86-18-3 heading into Saturday’s game, and the Crimson Tide are indeed favored again this year.
But the major storyline heading into this meeting comes courtesy of the quarterbacks, Keelon Russell and Kamario Taylor, who will shape not just this meeting, but the quarterback landscape for the next few seasons, and perhaps even into the NFL.
Let’s dive into the two quarterbacks, highlight their respective paths to this Saturday, and showcase why this could be college football’s next great QB rivalry.
Keelon Russell’s path to Alabama
Keelon Russell seemed destined for big time college football.
Coming out of Duncanville High School in Duncanville, Texas, Russell led his team to a 6A Division 1 state title in 2023, while throwing for nearly 3,500 yards and 38 touchdowns, against just three interceptions. A five-star recruit, he originally committed to stay in-state, and play for SMU, before flipping his commitment to Alabama in the summer of 2024.
Where Russell truly stood out was at the 2024 Elite 11 Finals, an annual camp and quarterback competition. Russell was just one member of the highly regarded 2025 quarterback class, but he stood out to the coaches, who called the group the “most talented” they had ever seen.
“Keelon’s super polished,” said Quincy Avery, an Elite 11 coach for 15 years. “We throw a lot at them, and his ability to digest the install so quickly, and for him to be able to take in all that information and still be able to play on time and on rhythm, that was high level.”
The young quarterback was named the MVP of that Elite 11 camp.
Russell sat behind Ty Simpson as a freshman in 2025, but won the quarterback battle with senior Austin Mack, as he was named the starting quarterback in late August.
Since then, Russell has helped Alabama to a 4-0 start, and a pair of SEC wins. He has completed 78-of-110 passes over this stretch — a 70.9% completion percentage — with eight touchdowns and just a pair of interceptions.
And he’s started to grow, and mature, in the Crimson Tide offense.
“Every game is its own game, but I feel like the last few, he’s learned a lot from the first game,” said Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer after last week’s 49-18 win over South Carolina.
“He’s got the guys around him that can go make plays, and so, just trusting them, trusting himself. What you’re seeing now is you’re seeing he knows the offense, and then you’re seeing him feel comfortable.”
The coach tasked with slowing him down on Saturday, Jeff Lebby, said the same earlier this week.
“Incredibly accurate,” Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby said about Russell. “They’re taking care of the football. They’ve got a lot of different weapons. They’re good at running back as well. And so you see a guy that is really playing well beyond his years right now.”
What stands out watching Russell is his patience, and confidence, in the pocket. He does not look like a first-year starter getting his initial taste of SEC football, but rather a fifth-year senior back for yet another campaign with dozens of games under his belt. Take this touchdown against South Carolina, as he connects with Ryan Coleman-Williams deep downfield, and notice how calm his eyes and feet are in the pocket:
You see the same traits on this second connection with Coleman-Williams. Watch as Russell remains calm in the pocket, works reads to both sides of the field, before finding his receiver behind the secondary for a big touchdown:
While Russell has put up impressive numbers, and grown inside Alabama’s offense, Saturday represents his toughest test yet. Three of Alabama’s wins have come at home, and in the Crimson Tide’s lone road game — a trip to Lexington to take on Kentucky — Alabama trailed at the half.
A huge second half, where the Crimson Tide outscored the Wildcats 32-0, propelled Alabama to a 45-17 win. But Russell was far from perfect in his first taste of life on the road in the SEC, throwing both of his interceptions this season in the first half of that game.
Kamario Taylor takes over in Starkville
As noted above, that Elite 11 competition in 2024 contained the members of the 2025 quarterback recruiting class, considered one of the best in the past decade or so.
That group included not only Russell, who was named the MVP, but Kamario Taylor.
While Russell started hot and stayed hot, Taylor got off to a much slower start than the quarterback who will be on the other sideline on Saturday. But what stood out to the coaches was how Taylor improved over the course of the camp, and shined on the final day in the seven-on-seven tournament.
“He was raw in a lot of those drills,” Avery said about Taylor. “But what you didn’t get to see was his spatial awareness, and the things that are really so innate at the quarterback position that he had at a really high level. What impressed me the most was his arm strength, his ability to see the field, his ability to throw on time and just feel the game, which was really unique.”
Brian Stumpf, the President of the Elite 11 camp, told Bruce Feldman that Taylor was the kind of prospect that the camp was designed for.
“Kamario was one of those unique guys, where now it’s like they’re an outlier, but 25 years ago, this was most of the quarterbacks, where they’re a good high school football player at a very small school, who plays other sports,” Stumpf said. “If he had a private QB coach, he just started working with him. He was just this raw ball of clay. He was at a small public school in rural Mississippi. Not playing a bunch of travel seven-on-seven. He was just a baller.
“He was a lot more comfortable (in the 7-on-7), where it was just go play, as opposed to, ‘OK, you need to take this drop, make this fake, and do this rollout.’ But there was never a question of the tools he possessed. Some guys struggle that first day, and then they go in a shell. They’re looking over at their dad — ‘Oh, you’re blowing it!’ There was none of that. This kid really believed in himself, and even though he was immersed in this sensory overload situation, by the end of the weekend, he had figured out how to thrive in that environment with the things that he had within him.”
Taylor was graded as a four-star prospect out of Noxubee County High School in Macon, Mississippi. He committed early to Mississippi State, and honored that commitment after Zach Arnett, who recruited him, was fired. That meant turning down offers from schools like Georgia and Texas A&M, while he rose up the recruiting ranks and the Bulldogs limped to 2-10 in the first year under Jeff Lebby.
He then sat behind sixth-year senior Blake Shapen for much of his freshman year, seeing action in short-yardage situations, but started the final two games, including a start against Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl and in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against Wake Forest.
In those two starts, both losses, Taylor completed 28-of-53 passes for 419 yards and a touchdown, along with an interception. But the talent he showed put transfer options on the table for him, with sources indicating offers to sign were approaching the $4 million mark.
He chose Mississippi State yet again.
“They don’t know the type of person I am,” he said to ESPN. “My mom always told me that once you start something, you have to finish it.”
Now Taylor and the Bulldogs are 4-0, and Mississippi State is ranked for the first time since 2022. A win in this game, over Alabama, in a rivalry dominated by the Crimson Tide puts the Bulldogs firmly on the map, and likely vaults Taylor into the national conversation.
Where he should already be, thanks to a four-game stretch that has seen the quarterback complete 83-of-120 passes for 1,192 yards and 14 touchdowns, against just a pair of interceptions.
If there is one thing that truly stands out about Taylor it is the deep ball. While just a sophomore, he might have one of the best deep balls in the nation. Take this touchdown from last week against Missouri, as he absolutely drops this ball in a bucket on a go route to Sanfrisco Magee:
DeBoer highlighted Taylor’s proficiency with the deep ball ahead of Saturday’s meeting.
“He’s got a tremendous deep ball, but I think he’s got the other areas of the game, too, and does a good job managing the game within their scheme and within their system,” said DeBoer. “And he’s got the ability to run and extend plays with his legs, too. Extremely talented, I mean, great athlete.”
What else does Taylor bring to the table? It starts with arm talent, and how the ball explodes out of his hand. Watch this touchdown strike against Missouri, as he connects with Magee on an in-breaking route:
This is a frozen rope, and while he may have struggled early back at that 2024 Elite 11 camp, the arm talent was there from day one.
“The ball popped off of his hand differently,” Elite 11 coach Justin Hoover said about Taylor. “His arm talent is on par with the best kids we’ve had.”
And then there is the play-making ability highlighted by DeBoer, on this bit of “backyard football” from last weekend:
Yes, this game should be fun.
Of course, college football in 2026 does not always lend itself to long-standing rivalries between players. Transfers happen, players change schools, and the names do change over time.
But both Taylor and Russell seem at home where they are right now, and Taylor in particular has chosen Mississippi State time and time again, despite what other opportunities were placed in front of him, and what other opportunities he earned.
This may be the first meeting between these two, but something tells me it will not be the last.
And this blossoming quarterback rivalry looks like one that could continue beyond the SEC, and into your future Sundays.
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