Starting Mississippi State wide receiver suspended vs Missouri

Mississippi State football plays its home finale this afternoon against the #23 Missouri Tigers. The Bulldogs are hoping to spring a Senior Day upset to earn their first conference win of the season and give both the team and fanbase something to hang their hat on in what has been an incredibly disappointing and frustrating year.

Going into today, it appeared that Mississippi State would not be without any unexpected players against the Tigers, as the players every player listed on the availability report throughout the week had previously been out. Saturday afternoon, however, we learned of a significant absence.

Mississippi State wide receiver Mario Craver suspended vs Missouri

With just over an hour to go until the Bulldogs kickoff their final home game of the season against Missouri, news broke that starting true freshman wide receiver Mario Craver is out today due to a suspension. Paul Jones of On3 Sports first reported the news.

It's unknown at this time what Craver has been suspended for and whether or not that suspension will only be for this week. This will be the third game Craver has missed in his freshman campaign. An injury suffered in a home loss to Texas A&M sidelined him against both Arkansas and UMass. Craver is the team's second-leading receiver with 368 yards and three scores on nearly 22 yards per catch.

So who steps up in Craver's absence? Obviously leading-receiver Kevin Coleman will be targeted plenty, but that's been the case both when Craver has and hasn't been out. TE Seydou Traore and WR Jordan Mosely both had big games while Craver was previously injured. We'll see if WR Kelly Akharaiyi plays more of a factor.

This is a tough loss for Mississippi State. Craver is the most explosive player on the team and can take the top off a defense better than anyone else. State's task at pulling off an upset today just got a bit more difficult.