A magical night, a big win, and for Mississippi State, perhaps, the seeds of belief and confidence

• Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Southern Miss all picked up wins on Saturday. Here’s a glance back and a look ahead to Week 3.

In the ocean of college football Mississippi State’s upset of The Associated Press 12th-ranked team may not have moved the needle much.

But context is important, and in the time and place of Bulldogs football right now, it’s hard to overstate a 27-24 comeback win against Arizona State, the first signature win for Jeff Lebby.

Signature win yes, but just his fourth win overall, which brings us back to time and place.

It was a grinder.

The Bulldogs spent most of the first and early second quarters building a 17-point lead only to watch it vanish.

On paper, one of Arizona State’s chief advantages was its run game, and the Sun Devils, after a slow start, righted themselves to rush for 251 yards for the game. Two backs surpassed 100 yards.

That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of Lebby’s off-season commitment to rebuild on defense, particularly the line.

But credit Arizona State for adjustments.

The Mississippi State defense made the plays, getting stops early in the game.

Then, with 2 minutes left and the lead long gone, the Sun Devils had driven 95 yards and seemed poised to go up seven in a tie game.

But the Bulldogs forced a field goal.

Arizona State, having overcome alleged substandard hotel accommodations, had reached the MSU 1 yard line and twice ran right up the middle, the heart of the Bulldogs’ defense where so many had so much success a year ago, and failed.

It would have been only a moral victory had the Sun Devils not also had a coverage bust in the plays ahead, allowing Blake Shapen to find Brenen Thompson on the right sideline and Thompson to find, to his delight, an uncovered middle of the field as he ran away from the Arizona State cornerback.

The delirium that engulfed Davis Wade Stadium would have been only nervous hope for overtime if not for two defensive stops minutes before.

Now the Bulldogs turn their attention, hopefully all of it as Lebby brings down his players from a high, to Alcorn State which almost assuredly means a 3-0 start for a team that was 2-10 a year ago.

After that it’s Northern Illinois, also in Starkville, before the Bulldogs open SEC play at home against Tennessee on Sept. 27.

Alcorn State is 0-2 after a 41-31 loss at Alabama A&M Saturday.

So, 251 rushing yards might not validate defensive line play, but harassment of ASU quarterback Sam Leavitt with two picks, six tackles for loss and just 333 total yards may signal better defensive play overall.

And with fans storming the field in a joyous celebration it validates something else – belief.

Ole Miss

The Rebels won a grinder as well, 30-23 at Kentucky, to move to 2-0, 1-0 in SEC play.

Ole Miss is at home against Arkansas Saturday night.

Kentucky-Ole Miss games in recent years often tend to grind.

The big news early for Ole Miss was quarterback Austin Simmons, who threw two interceptions on back-to-back first-quarter possessions, his second-straight two-pick game. Ole Miss fell behind 10-0.

The big news late was Simmons’ health.

In between, Simmons regained his composure to win his first road start.

The game turned on a fourth-and-1 on the Ole Miss end of the field in the second quarter. Simmons, on play-action, found Harrison Wallace on the left side. Wallace ran the last 37 yards of a 55-yard play, and Kewan Lacy scored from the 1 on the next snap to get the Rebels on the board for the first time.

Ole Miss held the lead after a 1-yard run by Damien Taylor but had to fight through a 20-20 tie.

Simmons recovered to throw for 235 yards with 13-for-24 accuracy and scored on a 7-yard run.

Both Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and Simmons downplayed Simmons’ leg injury that caused him to leave the game in the fourth quarter. Presumably, he’ll be ready for Arkansas unless there’s a setback.

Arkansas will face its first SEC opponent after scoring 50-plus in easy wins against Alabama A&M and Arkansas State.

Ole Miss will face its toughest quarterback yet in Taylen Green, who has had the numbers you would expect given the competition he’s faced in two weeks.

Green fumbled when hit in the end zone in Fayetteville last year, the first Ole Miss touchdown in the Rebels’ 63-31 win.

Some Arkansas media accused the Ole Miss coach of running up the score.

If the Hogs are mad about it, Green and his mates will face an Ole Miss defense that has looked talented though not quite to the level of dominance it showed last year.

The Rebels still aren’t making enough plays behind the line, though there were timely sacks late in Lexington. Kentucky wasn’t good at quarterback with Zach Calzada and was worse when he was out of the game.

Southern Miss

The Golden Eagles got the first win of the Charles Huff Era, 38-20 against Jackson State. Southern Miss quarterback Braylon Braxton was 20-for-30 for 214 yards with three touchdowns. The offense played turnover-free football, but the defense allowed 4.5 yards per rush.

The Golden Eagles never trailed and led by 25 late in the fourth quarter.

Southern Miss is at home Saturday for its Sun Belt Conference opener against Appalachian State.

The Mountaineers are 2-0 with wins over Charlotte and Lindenwood, the latter of the Ohio Valley Conference.

Southern Miss and Appalachian State last met in 2023 with App State winning 48-38 in Boone, N.C.

The win over Jackson State snapped a 12-game losing streak for Southern Miss, which opened the season with a 34-17 loss to Mississippi State.

“I think there were a lot of points left out there, and we probably could have scored close to 60 today if we’d executed consistently, but I thought the guys responded well,” Huff said in his postgame press conference.

He used the Mississippi State game to illustrate his expectations to his players.

“The standard here is not just to play one half, and we kind of enforced that into our guys last week. We played a good half, and everybody said ‘oh, man, we played a good half.’ That’s not the standard. The standard is to go out and we’ve got to play and continue to execute at a high level.”