2025 record: 5-8
An expanded SEC schedule isn't going to make life any easier for Mississippi State, which has won just two conference games in the past three seasons. But third-year coach Jeff Lebby saw considerable progress in his second season over his first, improving from two victories to five.
“Great confidence in what we've got going on inside our walls,” Lebby said. “Our roster is in a much better place than it's been the last two seasons. So, that immediately gives you a chance to upgrade and change the outcome.”
Much of MSU's success could ride on the growth of sophomore quarterback Kamario Taylor, who served as a back-up and intermittent, short-yardage option last season. He appeared in 11 games as a freshman with two starts, passing for five touchdowns and running for eight. Now the 6-foot-4, 230-pounder is widely viewed as a potential star in Lebby's offensive system that will feature an up-tempo blend of QB runs and passes.
Even if Taylor posts head-turning stats and the Bulldogs scores their share of points, that might not be enough to amount to many victories against a schedule that includes six teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25.
Opposing defense could pay for overplaying the run against Mississippi State, which has 2025 leading receiver Anthony Evans III back in the lineup, complemented by speedy Missouri transfer Marquis Johnson.
Keeping defenses honest will be the key to ensuring Taylor has room to run when situations call for that. Lebby also will be hoping running back Fluff Bothwell gives his conventional running game the ability to wear on opposing defensive fronts.
On defense, the Bulldogs have a Jim Thorpe Award candidate in 6-4 cornerback Kelly Jones, named second-team preseason All-America.
While the Bulldogs appear comfortable with their center and both offensive tackles, there remain questions about depth for a unit that allowed 45 sacks last season — more than 129 other teams. Still, Lebby asserted that MSU is in "a much better spot than we were a year ago today.”
Meanwhile, MSU ranked 115th against the run last season, allowing 186.3 yards per game
Former Mississippi State coach Zach Arnett, who'd been promoted from defensive coordinator after the death of Mike Leach in 2022, has returned this year as defensive coordinator. That has raised hopes on the defensive side of the ball, but it could take more than one offseason to turn things around.
“His experience, the play-calling ability and him being able to create stress for the other side of the ball is something that we needed in a great way,” Lebby said.
Johnson, DL Dealyn Evans (transfer from Texas A&M), edge Amareee Williams (transfer from Florida State), DL Jayson Jenkins (transfer from Florida State), TE Zayion Cotton (freshman).
S Tony Mitchell (transferred to Ole Miss), DT Kai McLendon (transferred to Washington), OT Jayvin James (transfer to Alabama), DT Kedrick Bingley-Jones (transferred to Alabama), G Zach Owens (transferred to Missouri), OL Jimothy Lewis (transferred to California).
vs. No. 13 Alabama (Oct. 3), at No. 11 LSU (Oct. 17), vs. No. 10 Oklahoma (Oct. 24), at No. 5 Texas (Oct. 31), at No. 9 Mississippi (Nov. 27).
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - Mississippi State cornerback Kelley Jones (1) acknowledges the fans before the Duke's Mayo Bowl NCAA college football game against Wake Forest, Jan. 2, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Scott Kinser, File)
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Six million people in Somalia are facing acute food insecurity while the World Food Program has only a tenth of the resources it had in 2022 when it helped avert famine in the drought- and conflict-stricken East African nation, the head of the U.N. agency told The Associated Press.
“We can only do the bare minimum,” WFP executive director Carl Skau said Wednesday during a visit to a nutrition center on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu. “We’re only providing these nutrition supplies to the children that are really the worst hit.”
The reduced funds, because of cuts in international aid by donors and the redirection of resources to other humanitarian crises, meant that the WFP is unable to expand its assistance in Somalia, Skau said.
The WFP projects that 1.9 million children under age 5 in the country will suffer acute malnutrition this year, including nearly 500,000 who will require urgent treatment for severe acute malnutrition. Overall, around 30% of the population faces critical levels of food insecurity, the U.N. has said.
“We had 10 times more resources than now,” Skau said of the 2022 hunger emergency that was caused by a prolonged drought. “We were able to step in, and we prevented a famine here in Somalia."
“We know what’s going on, we have the capacity, we have the experience of dealing with this. We just need the resources now to do it.”
The consequences of the current food shortage, which is also a result of drought, conflict and the displacement of people, are seen at the Feynuus Health Center in Mogadishu’s Kahda district. Dozens of women carrying babies waited beneath a large tree or crowded along the veranda of the corrugated-metal facility seeking help.
Inside, health workers placed children in a blue weighing sling, screened them for malnutrition, and distributed therapeutic food.
Halima Mohamed Hassan, a mother of six, had walked nearly 3 kilometers (2 miles) carrying her malnourished 4-year-old child. She is pregnant, but said she hadn't eaten for two days. Her last meal was plain rice.
Health workers treated the child she brought with a special nutrient-dense food, while Hassan said that her other children were also malnourished, but she wasn't able to bring them to the center.
“I could not carry all of them,” she said.
Hassan fled the Lower Shabelle region four months ago after her husband died of malnutrition, she said. Food and water became scarce, and conflict made it increasingly dangerous for the family to stay.
She and her children walked for four nights before reaching a camp for internally displaced people on Mogadishu’s outskirts.
Hassan now shares a makeshift shelter with her widowed mother and her mother's four other children. The two women look for occasional work washing clothes in nearby neighborhoods to feed their household of 12.
The Feynuus center receives between 250 and 350 patients daily, mainly displaced women and children from regions outside Mogadishu, said Abdirahman Barkhad, program director of Youth Link Somalia, which operates the center.
Barkhad said that about 10 nearby health and nutrition centers had closed because of a reduction in humanitarian funding, increasing pressure on those that remain.
“We have witnessed children collapsing, because their families do not have enough food,” he said.
Mohamud Moallim Abdulle, commissioner of the Somali Disaster Management Agency, described the country’s food situation as “extremely alarming.”
He said that an estimated 1.85 million children are malnourished, while around 6 million people are affected by drought, and 2 million urgently need assistance.
Skau said that mothers he met this week in the town of Burhakaba described drought, insecurity, and also rising food prices as the main drivers of the crisis. Some had lost their crops and fled their homes. Others walked for three or four hours to reach health facilities, because aid workers couldn't reach them.
“I spoke to women with eight to 10 children,” Skau said. “They don’t know where the next meal is going to come from.”
Insecurity, with Somalia battling a 20-year-long insurgency by the al-Shabab militant group, also makes humanitarian operations more expensive. WFP must use aircraft in areas where staff and supplies can't travel safely by road, and some communities are inaccessible, Skau said.
He said that conflict in the Middle East was adding to the pressure by driving up fuel and food prices, limiting agricultural supplies, and drawing funding toward other emergencies.
After her child received some food at the center, Hassan began the walk back to the camp they live in. Her five other children were still waiting and hungry, she said, and she would have to return with them one at a time.
For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse
The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
A child is weighed at Feynuus Nutrition Centre on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, Somalia Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Somali women displaced by drought sit at Feynuus Nutrition Centre on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, Somalia, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
A Somali woman displaced by drought sits holding her child at Feynuus Nutrition Centre on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, Somalia, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Acting Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Carl Skau, center, meets Somali women displaced by drought at Feynuus Nutrition Centre on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, Somalia, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
A child is weighed at Feynuus Nutrition Centre on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, Somalia Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Somali women displaced by drought sit at Feynuus Nutrition Centre on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, Somalia Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
