A Noxubee County Product Built for This
Taylor is a Mississippi native through and through. At Noxubee County High School in Macon, he passed for more than 7,000 yards and over 100 touchdowns while rushing for nearly 2,000 more, leading the Tigers to three straight state championship game appearances. Noxubee County has long been a pipeline to Starkville — Taylor’s cousin, Omarr Conner, starred there before him, as did Jeffery Simmons, now the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history. Taylor chose Mississippi State over offers from Georgia, Texas A&M, Missouri and others, and he arrived in Starkville as the highest-rated quarterback recruit in program history.
He mostly played a backup role as a true freshman in 2025, completing 56 percent of his passes for 629 yards, 5 touchdowns and just 1 interception while averaging 8.9 yards per attempt. He added 456 rushing yards and 8 more scores on the ground. But it was down the stretch where he made his mark, starting the Egg Bowl and finishing 15-of-31 for 178 yards through the air while adding 173 rushing yards on 20 carries. He followed that up with a start in the bowl game against Wake Forest, going 13-of-22 for 241 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 63 yards on 18 carries. He did suffer an injury in that game that briefly worried the Bulldog faithful, but it turned out to be nothing major.
Manning Passing Academy Buzz
Taylor was selected as a counselor for this year’s Manning Passing Academy, held June 25-28 at Nicholls
State in Thibodaux, Louisiana — the 30th year for the camp, which regularly draws the nation’s top college
quarterbacks to work with junior high and high school passers. The Manning family’s ties run deep to Ole
Miss, but a handful of Bulldogs have earned invites in recent years, including Blake Shapen before him.
Taylor didn’t just attend — he stood out. Nola.com columnist Jeff Duncan called him the “most intriguing” quarterback he saw at the Friday Night Lights skills competition, praising his arm strength, athleticism and what Duncan described as his “Mississippi manners.” On3 analyst Wilson Alexander also singled out
Taylor’s performance, offering his own comparison of how Taylor stacks up against other SEC
quarterbacks heading into the season.
What's Next?
Head coach Jeff Lebby enters his third season in Starkville looking to build on a step-forward 2025 campaign, and Taylor is squarely at the center of those plans. With a full offseason as QB1 and the kind of buzz that doesn’t usually follow Mississippi State quarterbacks out of Louisiana, expectations in Starkville are as high as they’ve been in years for the sophomore signal-caller to lead the Bulldogs back to bowl eligibility.