College football is back: Miss. State at Southern Miss, Georgia State at Ole Miss

• Preview Week 1 in the 2025 college football season as Mississippi’s Big 3 kickoff this Saturday.

The greatest impediment to fall weddings is back as college football returns for Mississippi’s Big 3 this week.

Mississippi State at Southern Miss

Two of those teams – Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi – face off against one another in an 11 a.m. kickoff at the Golden Eagles’ M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg.

The infrequently played rivalry offers as much curiosity as animosity this season.

Like the Bulldogs, Ole Miss opens against a Sun Belt Conference foe, facing Georgia State in a 6:45 p.m. kick at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The Rebels are rebuilding at quarterback and on defense from a 10-win team that narrowly missed the playoffs in 2024.

State and Southern Miss are eager to distance themselves from disappointing seasons after winning just three games between them in 2024.

The Bulldogs were 2-10 in Jeff Lebby’s first season as coach. There were plenty of contributing factors, none more than a defense that ranked last in the Southeastern Conference in any meaningful statistical category.

State gave up 456.4 yards and 34.1 points a game.

Southern Miss’ 1-11 season led to regime change with Will Hall departing and a Sun Belt championship coach coming in.

Marshall won its last seven games and the conference title under Charles Huff, but differences with the administration made Huff available. The Thundering Herd went 10-3 overall.

Roughly 20 of Huff’s players followed him to Hattiesburg including quarterback senior Braylon Braxton, a big ’un at 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, who threw for 1,624 yards with 19 touchdowns and only two interceptions last season.

Braxton was MVP of the conference championship game and was named the league’s newcomer of the year after arriving from his first school, Tulsa.

Braxton brings a body of work and level of confidence to a key position, things Huff is trying to build in other spots.

“We’ve got a good group of guys we think we can play winning football with. We’ve got to get more. You can’t play the same guys for 60, 70 plays in a game,” Huff told local media after a recent scrimmage.”

In an SEC-Sun Belt matchup, the SEC team typically has the depth advantage, but building depth has been a common theme in State’s camp as well.

After defensive follies a year ago, Lebby changed his players, not his defensive coordinator, sticking with Coleman Hutzlers, though adding taff analysts Mike MacIntyre and Paul Rhoads. They’ve both been head coaches in power five conferences, and they’ve combined for almost 70 years in the business.

Lebby hopes his transfers will help create a unit that will put some heat on Braxton.

He singled out defensive linemen Will Whitson (Coastal Carolina), Jaray Bledson (Texas) and Jamil Burroughs (Miami) after a recent scrimmage.

“The energy, the toughness, the attitude and the edge … we’re getting close to where we want to be from that standpoint. We’ve got to continue to play cleaner, play better and create depth. The mentality and edge right now, I’m proud of where our guys are defensively,” Lebby said.

Lebby believes he has a defensive line that could evolve into two complete units that he can trust.

“That’s probably what I’m most excited about, feeling that we’ve got a chance to have maybe nine, 10 guys to go play winning football with. That’s where there’s been this great amount of growth. We’re not anywhere close to where we need to be, but that’s going to give us a chance,” he said.

State leads the Southern Miss series 16-14-1. The Golden Eagles took forfeit wins in 1975 and 1976 after State was hit with NCAA sanctions.

Georgia State at Ole Miss

Rebels’ quarterback Austin Simmons, Jaxson’s Dart replacement, didn’t have a dominant camp but showed growth from the first scrimmage to the second, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said.

“He played a lot better, took care of the ball a lot better,” Kiffin said. “Really, the whole offense did.”

Multiple injuries, none of them major, Kiffin said, has disrupted work along the offensive line, a unit that has just one returning starter.

The offensive line’s performance in 2024 was considered decent but not elite, as Dart was sacked 28 times, and the Rebels ranked 84th in sacks allowed. Improving both pass protection for Simmons and the rushing attack — which ranked 47th nationally in 2024 — are goals for 2025.

Simmons, a Miami high school star, came off the bench and completed five of six passes for 64 yards including clutch third- and fourth-down conversions in the Rebels big win against Georgia last year.

Running back Ulysses Bentley got the points on a 9-yard run, capping a 10-play, 75-yard drive.

The team and the stadium were energized. Simmons had thrown only eight passes against FBS teams prior to the drive but quickly cemented his place in Ole Miss lore.

If Simmons’ camp has been one of mixed reviews, the new defensive line has been more consistent, camp reports say.

There are expectations for new guys like edge rushes DeShawn Womack (LSU) and Princewell Umanmielen (Nebraska), but also for guys like William Echoles and Kam Franklin, guys who who come up through the program.

Georgia State was 3-9, 1-7 in the Sun Belt, under new coach Dell McGee last season.

After such an explosive offense in 2024, Kiffin hopes to see a clean game from Simmons against Georgia State before the Rebels go to Kentucky in Week 2.

“The first skilled unit has done really well. We’re developing depth behind that. We’ve got guys that have played other places but haven’t played here a lot. They’ve still got to come together,” he said.