Kamario Taylor Welcoming High Expectations
July 01, 2026 | Football, Joel Coleman
STARKVILLE – Did you open up any social media channels last weekend? If you did, you couldn't miss it. Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor was down at the Manning Passing Academy turning heads and getting the college football world talking.
"He's impressive in every way," one reporter posted of Taylor.
"I'm buying as much stock as I possibly can," wrote another.
Praise for Taylor was abundant and coming from all corners of the football-covering universe.
Taylor is of course getting ready for his first full season as the starting signal caller for the Bulldogs. As the top-rated quarterback recruit in MSU history, he needed no help amplifying the expectations for him in Starkville.
Despite Taylor's youth, his undeniable skill and athleticism combined with his aura has the State faithful believing a promising era of Bulldog football has arrived with Taylor as the tip of the spear.
It might be a lot to put on a guy with just two career starts under his belt. Yet, when you talk to Taylor, you won't find him running from any of the hype. He refuses to offer up any kind of deflection of the attention being thrown his way.
He's fully embracing it. He welcomes it. He wants it.
"My whole life I was always taught pressure either makes diamonds or busts pipes," Taylor said. "And I love when the pressure is on me, so I can show everyone that I can make diamonds."
Quite honestly, Taylor has no reason to shy away from anything. All his life, he's been sparkling like a diamond when the spotlight gets put on him. It's almost like he was born to shine.
Rewind time about 15 years. Right down the road from Starkville, Taylor was the running back for his hometown Macon Broncos.
"It was tackle football and it was my first time touching a football in organized football," Taylor remembered. "I was about 7 or 8 years old. There was a busted play, and I scored from 65 yards out. Like at that moment, I knew this is exactly what I wanted to do."
Taylor swapped positions a couple of years later when his team's quarterback, one of Taylor's best friends, decided to give up football to focus on basketball. No one could have possibly known it at the time, but Taylor's path to the present was already being paved.
"My coach back then kind of forced quarterback on me," Taylor said. "Then when I got to middle school, my coach was like, 'Yeah, you're going to play quarterback regardless of what you want to do.'
"I really started to love it when I got to ninth grade."
By 2022, Taylor was THE man at football-crazed Noxubee County High School – a place that's produced many eventual Mississippi State standouts including Taylor's cousin, Omarr Conner, as well as the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history, Jeffery Simmons.
Taylor built his own legacy with the Tigers as he led them to three straight state championship game appearances. He passed for more than 7,000 yards and over 100 touchdowns in his career, plus rushed for nearly 2,000 yards.
More than the numbers, it all matured Taylor. He credits his current MSU mindset to all he experienced in Macon.
"Noxubee is all about football," Taylor said. "So, it's either go big or go home. So, I'm so grateful for those moments there. It made me into the person I am and taught me how I have to earn everything and everything that comes with being the quarterback."
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For many prospects of Taylor's type, the moments get stressful as the final few months of high school go by with college programs vying for their services. However, as the pages of the calendar turned, things were different for Taylor.
Sure, he had options. He had offers from Texas A&M and Georgia among others. It didn't matter. Taylor's heart was MSU Maroon and White. It always had been.
"It wasn't a probably that I was coming to Mississippi State," Taylor said. "It was a 100 percent probability. I always knew where I wanted to go.
"When I was born, Mississippi State was in my nature. My mom went to school here. My uncle went to school here. My grandfather is a big-time Mississippi State fan. Our room was decorated Mississippi State. My grandmother's living room was decorated with Mississippi State – all kinds of Mississippi State stuff. We were all born into this. Bled into it."
Therin lies one of the most critical layers of why Taylor may just be perfectly built for the big moments that await him. Like the fans who pack Davis Wade Stadium and clang their cowbells, every bit of this is personal for Taylor.
Taylor is playing for so much more and so many more than just himself. His teammates see it in everything he does.
"This all means more to him than you can even imagine," MSU receiver Anthony Evans III said of Taylor. "He wants so badly to put on a show for his family, the fans, his support system, this team and everyone."
Said running back Fluff Bothwell: "All this has been set in his heart from day one in all the talks we've had…He wants it so bad, and I want it for him just as much as he does."
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Want.
That word is tricky. To want something means little if you're not willing to take the steps to go and get. Some of those steps aren't so glamourous.
Taylor's want has been evident since he first got to State's campus.
Weeks before Taylor began to truly jump onto folks' radar outside of Starkville with his two starts and pair of Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week awards, his yearning to be the best was on display away from the limelight. He was absorbing all he could. He was making himself ready for his moment long before it arrived.
Key in Taylor's growth was the evolution of his preparation. Taylor says he's going into this year a more educated, mature player because of the example he had in front of him for most of last year.
"Man, I'd watch [former State quarterback Blake Shapen] and I really learned how to prepare as a pro," Taylor said. "It was so helpful for me. He just took me under his wing, and I just watched everything he did and tried to be like him if I'm being honest. The way he prepared and watched film, it allowed me to put so much in my mind.
"Playing behind him and not starting, it was really such a blessing for me. I got to sit back and actually learn how to play the quarterback position instead of just going out and playing with raw athleticism."
Shapen taught Taylor preparation. Head coach Jeff Lebby taught Taylor the ins and outs of offense as a whole.
"It was like I was getting a new degree every day," Taylor said. "I got a quarterback degree every single day last year.
"Just being around Coach Lebby and learning the way he thinks and learning the way he wants to call the game, I learned so much. It all helped improve my game in every aspect – fundamentally, physically, mentally and just everything."
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Taylor's God-given ability and the work he's put in himself has constructed this exciting package that soon will be fully opened.
For months, much like those down at the Manning Passing Academy, folks have taken one look at Taylor and immediately felt there's something special in him.
"The way he has always handled himself and everything on the field and off the field, you can just tell," Bothwell said of Taylor. "Like, if you lined up a whole team and you didn't know what [Taylor] looked like or anything – you just knew his name and position – you'd be able to find him. He stands out. He stands out physically and stands out by the way he handles himself and just how serious he takes all this."
Well in a couple of months' time, Taylor will do all he can to turn the high expectations for him into reality. His chance to prove everyone right will soon be here.
Truth is, in the game of football, there are no certainties.
But there is this: Taylor is unafraid.
"I mean, all this comes with it," Taylor said. "We all know what we're getting into when we step between those lines. So, I'm just grateful for it. It's not even a blessing in disguise. All this is a direct blessing. So, you just gotta be ready for the moment, and I am."
