Kamario Taylor is making America sit up and take notice as college football’s breakout superstar. This weekend, he hopes to take down Alabama and deliver Mississippi State with its biggest win in decades.
In the last few weeks, Taylor has been showing the people of Starkville what those in Noxubee County, Mississippi already knew and what the rest of the country is quickly realizing: he is special.
It is not just the rare physical traits, the incredible athleticism and the freakish ability to throw one of the prettiest deep balls anyone has ever seen. It is a drive, competitiveness and leadership that was built behind the scenes at one of Mississippi’s most notorious high school programs.
He’s always taken pride in the details and the process. Even while he was starting quarterback in his football-mad town, he would spend some of his free time volunteering to pick up trash in the local area, saying: ‘I cannot stand to see my community dirty, so I do this.’
And while the small city of Macon, Mississippi might be a little dirtier these days, its population of less than 3,000 people will watch on proudly as one of its own takes to the field in front of the eyes of over 60,000 people in Davis Wade Stadium and millions more watching at home.
His star power is rising. Nick Saban gushed about him on College GameDay last week, suggesting in the NIL era that teams should throw the check book at him as Pat McAfee touted a $10 million value. NFL scouts have branded some of his film ‘absurd’, while he has soared towards the top of the list of Heisman Trophy contenders.
Quarterback Kamario Taylor has been the breakout star of the college football season so far
The sophomore leads his Mississippi State team into battle against Alabama this weekend
Taylor has come a long way since he was a kid playing for Noxubee County High School
This weekend has been circled by many – including himself – as his coming out party. His big breakout game on the national stage.
‘This game got me excited, because this is one of the games that he circled,’ close friend and high school teammate Dequandrion Welch tells the Daily Mail.
‘Alabama was the first game he circled to really set it off, and to really get it started. So I’m excited to see him play Saturday.’
Despite the whirlwind around him, those close to Taylor say he remains as humble and grounded as ever.
He’s still the same kid that his uncle, Omarr Conner, remembers being dragged out of bed to go to school.
‘You’d go to snatch him out of bed, because he liked to sleep in,’ Conner laughs. But then on a Saturday, with his beloved Mississippi State playing, things were different.
‘He gets up. He gets up to watch football,’ he recalls. The family ties to the school run deep, and it was engrained in Taylor from before he was born.
Conner was a star wide receiver and quarterback at Mississippi State from 2003 to 2006. Now, he acts as a mentor to the youngster, having lived in his shoes.
Throughout most of his journey, close friend Welch was his go-to both on and off the field. The wide receiver was a year older, but ‘Kamario was always advanced’ and playing a year above his age group.
‘So my whole life he’s been my quarterback,’ Welch says. At the same time, Taylor was a talented pitcher on the baseball team. He ran track and field. He would dunk on the basketball court, which his Uncle Omarr says was his first love.
Taylor’s first love was basketball but now he is one of the nation’s most electric quarterbacks
Taylor has led his team to a 4-0 start to the season including two conference wins in the SEC
‘His favorite player was KD (Kevin Durant), so he always thought he was KD,’ he recalls. ‘And then all of a sudden he grew, then he realized like, man, he really can spin it.’
Welch calls him a ‘true athlete’ and believes ‘if he wasn’t a quarterback, he’d probably still be in the SEC somewhere as an athlete on some team.’
But aside from seeing an immense athletic talent, Welch sees a close friend, someone he has spent countless hours with on and off the field.
‘Everything’s just adventurous,’ he says of Taylor’s personality. ‘Everything is fun. Always just full of life.’
Much of that time together would be spent talking about their dreams and ambitions of playing big-time college football. Over the years, their chemistry on the field blossomed and those dreams came closer and closer to reality.
‘It gives you chills when you think about it, because we’d sit around, bored, and talk about what he’s going to do,’ Welch says. ‘Now he’s actually out here doing it.’
Rewind a decade, and quarterback coach Wyatt Davis recalls driving to Noxubee County for the first time to work with Taylor when he was in eighth grade.
‘Man, there’s a lot of raw talent there,’ Davis recalls thinking. ‘Physically, he hadn’t matured yet, but you could tell. He was just a hard-nosed competitor. If you know his family, you know football’s everything. His family tree has athletes, and he was born with that competitive nature.
‘At first he comes off quiet, and very humble. He’s about business. He’s a worker, and puts God first in everything he does. He’s one of one, in my opinion.’
He lit up the field for Noxubee County, leading the Tigers to three state championship games, and leading Davis to tell himself: ‘Okay, that kid is different’.
Those who watched Taylor growing up always knew he was ‘different’ and a star athlete
Taylor has been making freakish throws that defy physics since he was in high school
He started playing football for the Macon Broncos when he was eight. He was originally a running back, and when he scored a 65-yard touchdown on a broken play, he realized ‘this is exactly what I want to do’.
He was forced into playing quarterback by his coach a few years later, and the rest is history. And the plays that Omarr remembers seeing in the yard at family gatherings made their way to high school. Now, they’ve made their way to the SEC.
‘I think the plays I remember the most are the ones in the yard, you’ve seen the ball come out of his hand, tight as fire, and you’ve seen the ball come with all the zip,’ he recalls.
‘And then you go over and watch him in high school, he makes some incredible plays. And all of a sudden he’s in Mississippi State doing the same thing.’
There is one play that Davis in particular remembers. It was his senior year, against Kemper County. The pocket collapsed, he was forced out all the way to the left side of the field, towards the sideline. Then he spotted a receiver racing down the opposite side of the field.
‘It was a broken play, but he threw a dang ball all the way across the far side of the field and ended up scoring. He threw a dime. You never knew what you were going to see from him.’
Taylor led the Tigers to three straight state championship games, throwing for more than 7,000 yards and over 100 touchdowns in the process, as well as adding nearly 2,000 rushing yards.
‘You ask anybody in the state, they know Kamario Taylor was a winner,’ Davis says. ‘I think that’s one of his huge things, he knows how to win. And that’s gonna bring Mississippi State that culture back.
‘If you know the kid, he’s very grounded. He knows his upbringing. He’s a competitor and the only thing he’s worried about is winning ball games and really doing it for Mississippi State.’
Taylor has flown up Heisman Trophy rankings and is primed to take on superstar status
The Bulldogs No.1 always had his eyes set on the Starkville school near where he grew up
Welch remembers entering his senior year and realizing him and Taylor just ‘couldn’t hit’ on one particular route, the post, where the wide receiver runs deep down the field then breaks in towards the middle of the field.
‘He’d either overthrow me, or underthrow me,’ Welch recalls.
The problem carried into the first game of the year. So Taylor took Welch back out onto the field, and they worked on the play alone ‘all night long’. The next game, he threw a touchdown to Welch on that very same play.
‘You go back on the film, and he ain’t missed on that post ball since then,’ he says.
It is just another example of something Conner ‘always knew’ about his nephew: ‘Kamario was going to be special.
‘You always knew he had something about him. You already knew he was going to be a leader. I mean, just looking at him now and the success, it ain’t no secret. He’s been the same kid since the day he was born.’
It took some time for everyone else to realize Taylor’s talent. His first collegiate offer came from Southern Miss after he threw for 282 yards and five touchdowns in a 55-52 loss in the 3A state championship game as a sophomore.
Months later, he received an offer from his hometown school, Mississippi State, at a time when he was ranked by 247Sports as the nation’s No. 582 recruit, No. 14 prospect in Mississippi and the No. 46 quarterback of the 2025 recruiting class.
There were late pushes from Texas A&M and Georgia, but there was never much doubt where Taylor was heading.
Taylor possesses a beautiful deep ball and arm talent that is already wowing NFL scouts
Taylor is now taking the same fanfare and acclaim in Starkville his uncle did in the 2000s
Omarr Conner, Taylor’s uncle, played quarterback and wide receiver for Mississippi State
‘Oh man, it felt good,’ Conner says. ‘Just to know he was going to my alma mater. It’s a school that was good to me and my family, and now I’m seeing them being good to my family again. Just watching Kamario go to Mississippi State and turn things around with the team they put around him? Man, it’s been a joy to watch.’
After taking over as starter this year, Taylor has led the Bulldogs to a 4-0 start including SEC wins over South Carolina and Missouri. Inevitably, the buzz has led to speculation he could leave for huge NIL money offered elsewhere.
‘I know there’s a lot of buzz going on with the NIL stuff, him transferring’ Davis says. ‘But if you know the kid, I can bet you it ain’t gonna happen. He’s loyal to Mississippi State, and he’s loyal to those guys. You’re going to be the hometown kid that brings that program back.’
Welch says Mississippi State was a ‘no brainer’ during his recruitment. He adds: ‘He had no other school on his mind. He was big on who believed in him. It was always Mississippi State.’
But while Taylor shot down suggestions he might transfer, the recent comments from Saban generated national attention. That is something Taylor is going to have to get used to, and something that his uncle addresses in their regular calls, every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.
‘I just try to tell him, man, block out the noise,’ Conner says. ‘Continue playing something that you love. I mean, at the end of the day, you’re still a 19-year-old kid. It’s not a job. It’s football. It’s something you love to do.
‘I always try to keep him well grounded, try to block out that noise as much as he can. The sky is the limit, man. But be good with your feet there right now. You know what I’m saying? Right now, you’re a college quarterback leading the college program.
Those close to Taylor insist he will not transfer despite plenty of lucrative interest being likely
Taylor’s uncle is advising him to keep his feet on the ground and enjoy the present
‘He’ll be preparing for everything that comes. But right now, enjoy this. Because we can’t get these days back. Enjoy where you at, enjoy what you’re doing, just keep on working, stay being the same kid, stay humble.’
And for those who have watched him grow? Now is the chance to sit back and enjoy the whole country getting to enjoy the sort of throws they have done for years.
‘It brings chills,’ Davis says. ‘I saw a kid when nobody knew his name in 8th grade, who was really raw, had a long way to go but just trusts the process, worked his tail off.
‘It’s impressive to see the way the kid got better. It’s amazing, because obviously you could see sprinkles of it when he was in 8th grade, but all of a sudden when he started getting physically matured, everything just came together for him. I’m proud of him.’
