Will Mississippi State go bowling in 2025? Maybe.

It’s that time, folks.

There are no more excuses, no more announcements (planned), and there’s really nothing that can happen in the next four days to change fans and prognosticators’ opinions.

So, today, I’m releasing my official (with one caveat) predictions for Mississippi State’s 2025 season.

Last season, I predicted Mississippi State to win seven games because, well, I overestimated how easy and simple it would be for Jeff Lebby to turn the program around. So, don’t use this for betting purposes, especially because of the following caveat.

I reserve the right to change these predictions after Saturday’s game against Southern Miss. We have yet to see this year’s team on the field beyond practice warmups, some special teams work, and individual drills.

We have no way of knowing if the roughly 60 new players will have better impact this season than it did a year ago. Saturday will be the first chance we see this group on the field as a team.

The Bulldogs may blowout Southern Miss, which might necessitate a change. Or the Bulldogs get shocked by a team with even more new players and lose, which would require some drastic changes.

However, for now, going off of what we know and my own gut instincts (despite last year’s huge miss), here’s my season predictions. As always if I’m wrong, we never speak of it. If I’m right, there’ll be a big celebratory party.

At Southern Miss

Taylor’s Prediction: Win

There are way too many unknowns to accurately predict this game and I’m not going to go further than I expect some early, first-game-of-the-season jitters that keeps the score close in the first half and Mississippi State to pull away in the second half.

Arizona State

Taylor’s Prediction: Close loss

Here’s where my caveat comes in to play. If the Bulldogs look great against Southern Miss, I’ll change this to a Mississippi State win. But the Bulldogs have to show it first, specifically on defense. They’ll need to show the potential to slow down, or flat-out stop, a Sun Devils offense with one of the best QB-WR combos in the nation.

Alcorn State

Taylor’s Prediction: Easy Win

This is like Eastern Kentucky or UMass last season. It’s a game that even if the Bulldogs are going to have a disastrous 2025 season, this will still be a win. It’s a game the Bulldogs will win just by showing up. If not…I’ll hit the panic alarm for the fanbase.

Northern Illinois

Taylor’s Prediction: Easy Win

No way can Mississippi State lose to a MAC school two years in a row. That’s just not something an SEC team does, plus Northern Illinois isn’t the same team that Toledo was. Toledo had almost every starter returning from the previous season. Norther Illinois, who had great 2024, lost most of its players to the transfer portal, including one current Bulldog, Cam Thompson.

Tennessee

Taylor’s Prediction: Win

Here’s the other game I reserve the right to change my prediction based off of what we Saturday against Southern Miss. But the Volunteers also have to show something. Nobody knows how the Volunteers, a 2024 College Football Playoff team, will look after letting its star quarterback leave on a NIL dispute. The Volunteers’ defense will still be good, but how much will that matter if the offense struggles?

At Texas A&M

Taylor’s Prediction: Loss

I’m on record with my status as not being a Texas A&M fan, on an entirely personal basis. As I put it to Jackie Sherrill last week, growing up in Texas you end up picking between the Longhorns and Aggies and I went with orange team, which did draw a laugh from Sherrill. I even have a picture of myself at a Longhorn football camp and Mack Brown standing next to a Heisman Trophy.

So, it pains me to do this…but the Texas A&M team might be really good. The Aggies return its entire starting offensive line (which includes All-Americans and future NFL players), its quarterback and large portion of its defense. The offense also added one of the best receivers in the transfer portal, KC Concepcion.

Of course, there’s always the possibility the Aggies pull an Aggie and fail to live up to expectations.

At Florida

Taylor’s Prediction: Loss

Another team with a personal connection. Actually, two connections, but it’s the four years I spent covering my alma mater, Delta State, whose head coach was Ron Roberts, who is now the executive head coach/defensive coordinator at Florida. (I even coached his oldest son in little league baseball on an all-star and regular season little league team.)

I mention that to say, I know the Gators have a great coach in Roberts. The defense will be good and if DJ Lagway continues his progression…with the men’s basketball team winning a national championship, the 2006-2008 time period in Gainesville may repeat itself.

Texas

Taylor’s Prediction: Loss

Despite me realizing a Mississippi State win is more realistic than I first thought, I don’t expect the Bulldogs to win this game. You can read how a Mississippi State win could happen here, but I do only give it a 10 percent chance.

At Arkansas

Taylor’s Prediction: Win

It had been more than 20 years since Mississippi State went 0-8 in SEC play, but Jackie Sherrill was able to win one game the following year. The point of that is the Bulldogs can’t got winless in SEC games this season. Of the eight SEC games the Bulldogs will play this year, this is the most logical choice for the Bulldogs to avoid another 0-8 conference schedule.

Georgia

Taylor’s Prediction: Loss

After thinking about it, what needs to happen for Mississippi State to beat Georgia is exactly the same thing needs to happen to beat Texas. The biggest difference is Georgia doesn’t have a quarterback named “Manning” on its roster, which gives Mississippi State about a 10-15 percent better chance of upsetting Georgia compared to Texas.

At Missouri

Taylor’s Prediction: Loss

I don’t have a great reason for this and, by this point in the season, each team could look a lot different than what it does. But since it’s a road game before a rivalry game, a loss here might be enough motivation to win the finale and become bowl-eligible.

Ole Miss

Taylor’s Prediction: Win

With this year’s rivalry game being in Starkville, and if the above predictions are correct, Mississippi State will be one game away from being bowl eligible. Sure, some help from the Rebels having a lackluster would help, but the Bulldogs will have enough motivation to win this.

Final Predicted Record: 6-6