Prescott to return for senior season at Mississippi State

After months of speculation, Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott announced Wednesday afternoon that he will pass on a chance to declare for the NFL Draft and will instead return to Mississippi State for his senior season.

Dak Prescott will return to Mississippi State for his senior season.

— Michael Bonner (@michaelbbonner) January 14, 2015

Prescott had until tomorrow to make his decision before the deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft.

He told Sports Illustrated earlier this season that he’d likely leave school for the NFL if he was projected to be selected in the first three rounds of the draft. The signal caller received his draft grade from the NFL last month, although no one knows what his grade was or where he was projected to be taken based on that grade. CBS Sports had projected Prescott as a second- or third-round pick.

As a junior in 2014, he led Mississippi State to just its second 10-win season and its first Orange Bowl appearance in more than 70 years. He threw for more than 3,000 yards, ran for more than 900 and accounted for 32 total touchdowns, and set a number of school records along the way. He finished eighth in the Heisman voting to become MSU’s highest Heisman finisher ever, and he became the school’s first first-team All-SEC quarterback in three decades.

He’ll return next season to a program losing 18 seniors and star underclassmen Benardrick McKinney and Josh Robinson, but will be regarded as one of the best returning quarterbacks in the nation when Week 1 arrives in September.

Ethan Levine

A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.