When Texas rolled into Starkville on Saturday afternoon, the Longhorns knew they’d be facing a hungry Mississippi State squad. What nobody expected was a different kind of battle brewing off the field. This one would light up social media and expose the thin line between fandom and territorial pride in college football’s most passionate towns.​

The fireworks started when CJ Vogel, a Texas journalist who covers the Longhorns for On Texas Football, aired his grievances about Starkville’s infrastructure on Twitter. “There shouldn’t be a college town in the country where I don’t have phone service while standing in the middle of the town’s busiest street,” Vogel wrote. “But here we are in Starkville, Mississippi. Service is dead as a dog.” The complaint might have gone unnoticed in the usual game-day Twitter noise.

But it caught the attention of Brandon Walker, the Barstool Sports personality and die-hard Mississippi State alum who’s built a reputation for his passionate, and often combustible, defense of all things Bulldogs.​ Walker didn’t mince words in his response.

“Lying a– liar.” This blunt reply kicked off a brief but memorable spat. Vogel clearly enjoyed the reaction he’d provoked from Brandon Walker. And he fired back with sarcasm: “How it feels to upset the College Football’s No. 1 Personality. Forgive me for my failures.” He accompanied the tweet with a photo of Walker lying on the ground and turned what could have been a genuine spat into performance art that delighted both Texas and Mississippi State fans watching from the sidelines.​

The on-field matchup between No. 22 Texas and Mississippi State carried its own drama heading into Saturday’s 4:15 p.m. ET kickoff at Davis Wade Stadium. The Longhorns are 5-2 overall, but they are riding a narrow escape from their last road game. It was a 16-13 overtime squeaker against Kentucky, where quarterback Arch Manning completed just 44.4% of his passes, second-lowest this season. Ultimately, the offense managed only 179 total yards. The QB’s issues are very prevalent. 

Manning’s road struggles (1-2 record away from home with three touchdowns and three interceptions) gave the Bulldogs hope despite their own recent skid. Mississippi State, sitting at 4-3 after losses to Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Florida, needed a marquee win to salvage its SEC campaign. They have to restore confidence in a program that started the season 4-0 before everything fell apart.​

Texas came in as a 7.5-point favorite with the over/under set at 46.5 points. But the Bulldogs had proven dangerous enough at home to make any visiting team nervous. The game itself would determine playoff positioning and bowl prospects. But the Vogel-Walker spat provided a sideshow that showed everyone what makes college football special. It’s the passion that runs so deep that even cell phone service becomes a matter of civic pride. 

Vogel’s phone might have failed him, or he might have been stirring the pot for engagement. But Walker’s defense of Starkville showed that in college football, every slight demands a response. And no detail is too small to fight over when your school’s honor is on the line.​

Sarkisian under fire as offensive woes continue

While CJ Vogel was dealing with cell service issues in Starkville, he wasn’t the only one facing heat ahead of the Mississippi State matchup. Steve Sarkisian’s play-calling has become the talk of college football circles. And On3’s J.D. Pickell jumped into the fray on October 25th with a reality check for the critics. “I make sure I got this right here on the whole Steve Sarkeesian play-calling conversation — since Sark has been at Texas, he’s had a top-25 offense in scoring nearly every single year,” Pickell said. 

“But because this year hasn’t been that awesome so far, we’re like, hey, should Sark give up the play-calling?” It’s a fair question to ask when you consider Texas came into 2025 as the preseason No. 1 team with national championship expectations. Now, they’ve stumbled to 5-2 with an offense that’s ranked 80th nationally in scoring and 84th in total offense.​ The stats tell a brutal story.

Texas dropped from 33.0 points per game last season to just 26.7 this year. And their third-down conversion rate (38.1%) is an absolute nightmare. The red zone numbers are even worse. They have a 60% touchdown rate, good for 114th in the country. But Pickell isn’t buying the narrative that Sarkisian’s suddenly forgotten how to call plays.

He pointed out the elephant in the room: “Nick Saban wanted him to call plays. The NFL wanted him to call plays. But because we got a brand new offensive line and a first-year starting quarterback who’s playing like a first-year starting quarterback, we’re questioning if Sark’s the problem, that right?” It’s hard to argue with that logic when you consider Texas lost four offensive linemen to the draft and is now allowing pressure on 42.4% of drop backs. That’s nearly half of Arch Manning’s attempts.​