Vanderbilt Football Preseason Game Prediction: Mississippi State – si.com

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The month of November is an interesting time in the college football calendar. It is the third and final month of the regular season, but it is still two months away from the end of the college football season.
For Vanderbilt, though, November is a time where the program wants to create a tendency of winning. The Commodores proved that a year ago, losing just one game in the all-important month to close their historic regular season. This fall, Vanderbilt is hoping to mimic that or do better. The Commodores begin November with a road trip to Mississippi State this season.
The Bulldogs do not have high expectations at all in the eyes of the media as they were picked to finish 15th in the SEC this year. While it is a road game for Vanderbilt this season, Mississippi State is one of the easier opponents it will face in the nine-game conference slate.
Mississippi State could surprise a lot of people this season. If it did, it would likely be because of its new starting quarterback Kamario Taylor. Taylor did win SEC Freshman of the Week two times last season, though he was not the team’s regular starting quarterback. Taylor is a dual-threat quarterback that can act as a second running back when he decides to take off.
On the defensive side of things, Mississippi State has a lot to prove this season. The Bulldogs were a bottom tier SEC defense in 2025 and only added four players to its defense through the transfer portal.
Here are a couple keys to Vanderbilt’s matchup against Mississippi State this fall and a game prediction.
The first key when previewing this matchup is what Vanderbilt has to do against Kamario Taylor. The Commodores simply cannot afford to have Taylor running all over the field and open up the passing game for Mississippi State.
That would of course mean that Vanderbilt has to win the battle at the line of scrimmage on defense and get to the Mississippi State backfield. If the Commodores are able to do that, that also helps with limiting the impact of Bulldogs’ running back Fluff Bothwell, who had 677 rushing yards last season.
When this game happens, the narrative of Mississippi State’s defense and Vanderbilt’s offense will already be written. But giving both units an early look, it does seem as though Vanderbilt should be able to find success offensively against a vulnerable Mississippi State defense.
More specifically, Mississippi State was toward the bottom of the sport in run defense (115th). Unless that changes drastically, this looks to be a matchup for Vanderbilt’s veterans on the offensive line to get a push for running backs Sedrick Alexander, MK Young and others to do serious damage to the Bulldogs.
The road environment could be a challenge early on, but this feels like a game where Vanderbilt eventually takes control midway through the second half.
Kamario Taylor may end up making plays for Mississippi State’s offense, but the more reliable factor in the game is what Vanderbilt’s rushing attack can do to Mississippi State’s run defense. Vanderbilt likes to run to win and this feels like the perfect matchup to do that.
Score Prediction: Vanderbilt 31, Mississippi State 21
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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