College Football Coach Hire Grades: Mississippi State

Mississippi State Bulldogs: Jeff Lebby

Why the job was open: It’s been a tumultuous couple years for Mississippi State to say the least. Mike Leach suddenly passed away in December 2022 (RIP again to a legend.) Zach Arnett the DC at the time was promoted to head coach, a seemingly natural move to transition the players through a challenging time. Honestly that’s not how it went. Arnett forced the offense to go run heavy with air raid personnel and that was just an example of how awkward this transition ended up being.

Coach Profile: Lebby got his start under Art Briles at Baylor, serving in various offensive roles there during a 9 year stint. This came to an end of course when the scandal went down, Lebby is Briles’ son-in-law by the way, you can form your own opinion on that. He eventually joined Josh Heupel’s staff at UCF and had great success there, that success continued once he joined Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. He got his first role as the OC for a non-offense minded HC when he joined Brent Venables at Oklahoma and reunited with Dillon Gabriel there (they were together at UCF as well.)

Why he will succeed: There’s one thing we can guarantee Lebby will bring to the table and that is an offense that’s tough to defend. They’re going to put up lots of yards and stress out defenses and it’s something that Mississippi State has clearly looked for in every hire they’ve made.

What obstacles are in the way of success: Mississippi State is the 2nd toughest job in the SEC. They are going against programs in more fertile recruiting territory and it’s really only getting worse. They risk being swallowed up by this oversized league. Lebby’s offense will move the ball well, but I’ve always thought his version of the veer and shoot can get too pass happy.

Grade: C+ – Lebby brought in some good assistants but overall hire doesn’t excite me. Lebby is a system guy and brings a system that will be visually appealing. Outside of that, there isn’t much that makes me think they can break into the top half of this conference.