The focus of nearly every conversation in college football these days is the Transfer Portal. This "free agency" era of the sport has fans constantly asking "who's leaving, and who are we getting?" when it comes to their team's roster. There's just an assumption for many that they'll be cheering on a new lineup of "one-year rentals" come fall.
Mississippi State football knows that world well. The Bulldogs have seen significant overturn to their roster in recent years, leaning on large Portal classes to field teams. That's largely the case once again at the start of the 2026 offseason.
But what's often become overlooked and even undervalued is roster retention in the Portal era. At a time where teams are forced to piece a roster together annually, bringing back a core group of key players can be incredibly valuable for a team and even give them an edge.
Mississippi State has its core group of talent returning for 2026
Mississippi State may have that edge in 2026. Every key player from the 2025 season that had the option to return for next fall has announced their return for the Bulldogs. CB Kelley Jones decided to not enter the NFL Draft, giving State one of the nation's best DBs going into next season. WR Anthony Evans III, who led MSU in receptions, and S Isaac Smith, the leader of the defense, both had other SEC programs trying to get them into the Transfer Portal. They'll each suit up for the Bulldogs for their senior seasons.
State held-on to leading rusher and bruising RB Fluff Bothwell. Talented LBs Zakari Tillman and Tyler Lockhart will lead what should be an impressive middle of the defense. DL Will Whitson, having been granted an extra year of eligibility thanks to a medical waiver, will look to give State the game-wrecker they were missing on defense. And, of course, potential superstar QB Kamario Taylor is ready to move forward as the face of the program.
Sure, State saw a few rotational pieces and intriguing players decide to move on for other opportunities, but ultimately, they did not lose a single player to the Transfer Portal who you would confidently project as a starter for 2026. Everyone that's viewed as a foundational piece of the roster will be back. That's reason to get excited for Bulldog fans.
That's a rarity in college football and a rarity for State, which has seen key players choose to transfer each of the last three years. And it's something that Jeff Lebby and the MSU program deserve a ton of credit for. It shows that this is a program guys want to stay a part of, and it shows that MSU is doing what it needs to keep talented players around from an NIL and revenue sharing standpoint.
There's still a lot that has to be accomplished to get Mississippi State back to fielding a regularly competitive program, and that includes heavy work in the Transfer Portal to fully reshape the roster. But the most important thing the Bulldogs could have done was hold-on to their stars, and they did just that.