One day before his sophomore season at Judson High School in Converse, Texas, Anthony Evans III walked up to his father and announced he was done playing quarterback.

"We put a lot of money into these quarterback trainings for three years," Anthony Evans II said with a laugh.

The switch worked out just fine, as Evans became a four-star receiver, played two seasons at Georgia and followed Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby to Starkville. With 61 catches for 711 yards and five touchdowns heading into Saturday's game against Auburn, the senior is now chasing the single-season school record former Bulldogs receiver Brenen Thompson set last year.

Kamario Taylor's injury split the season in two

Evans opened the year with 574 yards in five games, and four of those outings topped 110 yards. Since quarterback Kamario Taylor went down, the senior has managed 137 yards across four games, and none of them reached 50.

The pair had big plans for each other, too. Evans had predicted at 2026 SEC Media Days that Taylor would win the Heisman Trophy, and Taylor returned the favor before the opener.

"We're gonna expect him to win [the Fred Biletnikoff Award] this year," Taylor said in August.

Admittedly, the path back is a tall order. Evans needs 344 more yards to reach 1,055, an average of about 115 per game over the final three regular-season contests, with AJ Swann and Billy Puckett now throwing to him. Auburn at least offers an opening, since the Tigers allow 401.9 yards per game, which ranks 109th nationally.

Brenen Thompson needed a 13th game

Long story short, the record tends to fall late. Thompson finished with 1,054 yards in 13 games, becoming only the fourth 1,000-yard receiver in program history, and he passed Makai Polk's 2021 mark on a catch in the fourth quarter of the Duke's Mayo Bowl against Wake Forest.

Evans could use a bowl game of his own, which means Mississippi State needs two wins in its last three. Thompson, now a rookie with the Los Angeles Chargers, has stayed in his ear the whole way.

"I talk to him weekly," Evans said of Thompson. "With everything that's going on right now, he's just telling me to keep my head up and put good stuff on tape. This game is bigger than just me, so I'm just trying to be a team player and be a leader with everything that's going on right now. He's a good, I would say, brother to me."

Anthony Evans II explains the bigger goal

For the Evans family, the number means more than a line in the record book.

"What people don't understand is and don't know the backstory is that it's in relation to what Brenen did last year," Anthony Evans II said. "Brenen moved that needle a little bit last year. Anthony's goal in his job and his responsibility mentally is, well, guess what, now it's my turn to move that needle a little bit more.”

"So, if we continuously put that into our best receiver's mind in increasing those yards, then that's going to leave this program in a lot better place than when we first got here. That's why he's so adamant on, as a personal goal, breaking this record."