It’s the Magnolia State Roudup, a weekly look at who’s playing where for Mississippi colleges and universities.

 

Ole Miss (7-1) vs. Texas A&M (5-3)

11 a.m., Oxford

ESPN

Troll, Lane, troll.

One would hope that college football reached its peak of stupidity when Texas A&M gave Jimbo Fisher a 10-year, fully guaranteed contract extension worth $95 million at the start of the 2021 season.

Since then, Jimbo is a combined 18-14 leading the Aggies. And that’s come during a time when Texas A&M has been at the forefront of the NIL wars as the Aggies have been acclaimed for the collection of talent they’ve acquired once the exchange of money went from the back rooms to the board rooms in college football.

Nobody has delighted in seeing Jimbo get flustered by losing, as his West Virginia accent comes out strong when he’s flustered, more than Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin gets in shots on Fisher in and out of season. This week he said of the Texas A&M rosters, “These guys are absolutely loaded. It’s actually a mind-blowing collection of talent. As you watch them offensively, defensively, return game, special teams, it really is an NFL roster – height, weight, speed, explosiveness.”

Lane wants you to know how good the talent is at Texas A&M so that when they lose, the Aggies are 10-10 in their last 20 games, you’ll know where the blame lies, at the well compensated feet of Fisher.

I for one hope Jimbo saves his job, it would cost TAMU $77 million to send him home, and this personal rivalry continues for a long time.

 

Mississippi State (4-4) vs. Kentucky (5-3)

6:30 p.m., Starkville

SEC Network

Somebody on the Mississippi State roster needs to channel former Bulldog Anthony “Boobie” Dixon on Saturday in Starkville against Kentucky.

Dixon ran for a then school record 252 yards at Kentucky in a 2009 game. It was the first year for Dan Mullen in Starkville and MSU came in with a 3-5 record and faced a 4-3 UK team.

Dixon carried the ball 33 times and averaged 7.6 yards per carry. Afterwards, he gave an on-field interview that lives forever in maroon and white lore.

Bobbie told the television cameras that he had been, “grinding for his State.”

MSU won 31-24 that day in a game where they weren’t favored.

A win like that would buy lots of goodwill for first year State head coach Zach Arnett on Saturday.

 

Southern Miss (1-7) vs. Louisiana-Monroe (2-6)

3 p.m., Hattiesburg

Three times last week Southern Miss held a 10-point lead at Appalachian State, but the Mountaineers used a big third quarter to take an eventual 48-38 win that kept the Golden Eagle losing streak alive at seven games.

The Golden Eagles are three-point favorites at home and I for one am still on the Will Hall bandwagon, but losing to Terry Bowden and the Warhawks is a bridge that hopefully our wagon won’t have to cross.

 

Jackson State (6-3) vs. Texas Southern (2-6)

2 p.m., Jackson

ESPN+

I was reading the largest newspaper in our state online the other day and I was amazed at how many articles that were listed on the front page involved former JSU head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders.

Guys, it’s time to move on. He’s not thinking about you, I promise.

The 2023 Tigers have dust rolled weaker opponents such as Mississippi Valley and Pine Bluff in the last few weeks. Head coach T.C. Taylor wants similar results this week to put his Tigers at 7-3 overall before hosting Alcorn in the season finale on Nov. 18.

 

Alcorn State (5-3) vs. Southern University (5-3)

2 p.m., Lorman

ESPN+

Big, big game on Saturday in Lorman. The winner of this game is in the driver’s seat to face Florida A&M later this month in the SWAC Championship game.

Spinks-Casem Stadium should be rocking with a full crew of ASU fans.

 

Delta State (7-1) at West Georgia (6-2)

5 p.m., Carrollton, Ga.

Delta State still has a good chance of making the 2023 Division II playoffs, but they can’t afford to slip up on the road this week at West Georgia. The Statesmen will close the regular season next week by hosting Mississippi College.

 

Mississippi College (3-5) vs. West Florida (6-3)

2 p.m., Clinton

I picked Mississippi College to win last week, and the Choctaws let me down on the road. This week they’ll play the only team to beat Delta State this year. West Florida lost 31-28 last week to Valdosta State.

 

Belhaven (7-1) at Southern Virginia (1-7)

11 a.m., Buena Vista, Va.

Last week I called the game for Belhaven at Maryville the toughest test of the 2023 season thus far for the Blazers. Belhaven dropped that game in overtime to suffer its first defeat of the season. Belhaven won’t lose two in a row.

 

Millsaps (1-8) vs. Southwestern University (1-7)

1 p.m., Jackson

The season concludes for Millsaps interim head coach Cory York and his Majors on Saturday in Jackson. As tough as this season has been, a win over the Southwestern Pirates would be a great way for York and his team to go out in 2023.