Kamario Taylor's Standout Season Challenges Alabama's Keelon Russell

If you listen to all the "experts" in College Football Nation, the overwhelming conclusion seems to be that.

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I don’t even like the phrase trap game. It’s one of my least favorite phrases in sports, even though I cannot deny it happens from time to time. I guess a team can look ahead on their schedule and start thinking about a massive game coming up, like Georgia, but it comes down to the coaches and their ability to keep our team on task.

Starkville on Saturday is going to be a bigger challenge, maybe more than it looks like when the schedule came out. The headline aside from the possibility of a lot of wet weather is certainly the two starting quarterbacks.

I just read a piece on ESPN today about the best quarterbacks in the Power Four, and I found it interesting that Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor was ranked ahead of Alabama QB Keelon Russell. Yes, it is the battle of the young quarterbacks, and many predict this could be a high-scoring shootout. I'd like to see the Alabama defense rise up and deliver a dominant performance, but there is no guarantee it will.

Taylor has a QBR of 87.1, and Russell has 89. Taylor has thrown for 1200 yards. Russell has thrown for over 1100, so that’s basically a tie. Russell has 223 rushing yards, and Taylor has 219. So once again, call it even.

Taylor has nearly a 70% completion percentage and a 14-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio. ESPN calls him the September Heisman winner. So, I could be wrong, and maybe Taylor lights up Alabama and looks like the second coming of Michael Vick and Joe Montana. However, the stats seem pretty even, so I don’t quite understand why they're crowning him the better quarterback.

We will find out on Saturday afternoon, but I, for one, am hoping Keelon Russell is paying attention to all this hype and that, quietly, deep inside, it is motivating him to outshine the quarterback who seems to be getting all the love.