The 2025 Mississippi State football season came to a quiet end on Black Friday with a loss to rivals Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl. While the visitors took the national spotlight and coaching circus back to Oxford along with the Golden Egg, the Bulldogs remained in Starkville to ponder what could have been for the seventh time in eight SEC games.

Here’s a look at the moments that mattered most in MSU’s Egg Bowl defeat.

Tip, Tap, Picked

Both teams scored on their respective opening drives, but things settled in a bit after Ole Miss took a 14-7 lead. The MSU defense got a couple of stops, including a missed field goal by the visitors, and gave the team a chance to get back into the game.

Taylor had a big run to get the Bulldogs across the 50-yard line early in the second quarter, their first time doing so since the opening drive, but the newfound momentum was cut short by a turnover.

The first snap in Ole Miss territory was a pass, with the ball taking a deflection at the line of scrimmage. Running back Fluff Bothwell tried to salvage the play, but only served to tip the ball up again in the wrong direction.

Ole Miss defender Prince Umanmielen plucked the ball out of the air to regain possession for his team, ending MSU’s push for another score.

While the visitors didn’t capitalize with points, it was yet another moment where the ball just would not fall MSU’s way in a 2025 season full of such moments. The team hasn’t made its own luck enough to survive the bad luck moments, and it would prove costly again going into halftime.

Two-minute Drill

The Bulldogs managed to drive and convert a field goal with just under two minutes to play in the first half, a decent consolation, though they would have preferred a touchdown to pull level.

In hindsight, they also would have preferred to burn some more of the clock.

In just over a minute and a half, Trinidad Chambliss led the Rebels on a 75-yard touchdown drive to give Ole Miss a 21-10 lead going into the break. It was an efficient drive that showcased the gap between the teams in terms of ability to execute.

MSU came out at halftime and drove down the field again, but had to settle for a field goal again, which the Rebels soon answered with one of their own.

With a touchdown to start the final frame, and a 31-13 advantage, Ole Miss had all but wrapped up the win.

A New Hope

The brightest part of MSU’s day was the play of true freshman quarterback Kamario Taylor.

The Noxubee County graduate may have suffered the heartbreak of defeat in his first start for the Bulldogs, but he was able to showcase the ability that convinced head coach Jeff Lebby to give him a chance in the rivalry game.

Early in the fourth quarter, trailing 31-13, Taylor had led another drive into Rebel territory, but the chance to score was put under threat with a blown protection near the 35-yard line. Taylor somehow escaped the grasp of two pass rushers and scrambled up through the broken pocket and into the second level of the defense. He made one more defender miss with a juke near the 15-yard line and plowed into the end zone for the score.

There is no other way to put it than this: The play was a remarkable display of Taylor’s pocket presence and ability to both extend plays and create opportunities as a runner.

In the context of the game, the touchdown was potentially significant. It got MSU back on the board early in the fourth quarter and cut the deficit to 12 points. But no one was thinking about the present when they saw Taylor dance through defenders, they were thinking about the future. They were thinking about next August when Taylor will lead a new group of Bulldogs out with a fresh slate and a new hunger to build on the few positives of the 2025 campaign.

However, also in the context of the game, there was plenty of work left to do if the Bulldogs were to turn their hopes of a comeback into reality.

They did not.

The Empire Strikes Back

It took almost no time at all for Ole Miss to answer, and the answer was ruthless.

On the very next drive, Chambliss hit Deuce Alexander in stride for an 88-yard house call. It was the quarterback’s fourth and final touchdown of the day, securing the Egg Bowl win and an 11-1 regular season for the Rebels.

The win also likely secures a College Football Playoff berth for Ole Miss, the first in program history, regardless of head coach Lane Kiffin’s departure for LSU on Sunday.

For MSU, it was a fitting final nail in the coffin. The explosive plays had been MSU’s undoing over the final stretch of the season. It’s how Texas overcame a 17-point fourth quarter deficit, how both Georgia and Mizzou ran away in the second half of their respective blowout wins over the Bulldogs, and it’s how Ole Miss sealed the deal on Black Friday.