DALLAS — In each of his last three stops before being named Mississippi State’s head coach, Jeff Lebby worked for a current head coach in the Southeastern Conference.
At Central Florida in 2018 and 2019, Lebby was the Knights’ quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator under Josh Heupel, who left UCF to become the head coach at Tennessee in 2021. Lebby then moved on to Ole Miss, working as Lane Kiffin’s offensive coordinator for two years, then spent 2022 and 2023 as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma under Brent Venables.
“Jeff is one of my favorite people on this planet,” Venables said this week at SEC Media Days. “He’s always in a great mood, his perspective on life and the game of football and on the locker room, real juice and energy, genuineness and positivity. He’s a coach’s kid. So the game and the locker room have always been a sanctuary for him, which helps him be a very successful coach.”
Unlike Heupel and Kiffin, Venables has a defensive background, so by the time Lebby arrived at his alma mater, he was ready to take full control of the offense. Quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who put up outstanding numbers as a true freshman under Lebby and Heupel at UCF, transferred to Oklahoma and had two more excellent seasons as the Sooners’ starter, but Oklahoma also had a five-star freshman waiting in the wings last year in Jackson Arnold.
Arnold, a top-10 national recruit in his class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, is in line to start for the Sooners this fall as a sophomore now that Gabriel has transferred to Oregon. He had nothing but positive things to say about Lebby and expressed confidence that his former offensive coordinator will be able to build a winning culture with the Bulldogs.
“I love Coach Lebby. Obviously he was the OC I committed to and the coach I played for last year, besides the bowl game,” Arnold said. “I wish the best for him at Mississippi State. He’s going to do great. He’s a great coach, and on top of that he’s a great person too. I’m sure the coaches love working for him.”
Heupel picked up where Scott Frost left off with UCF, leading the Knights to an undefeated regular season in his first year there in 2018, then winning 10 games the following year with Lebby as offensive coordinator. He has since resurrected a historic Tennessee program, leading the Volunteers to an 11-win season in 2022 that included their first win over Alabama since 2006.
Lebby first crossed paths with Heupel when he was a student assistant at Oklahoma, his playing career there having been cut short by injury. Heupel was a graduate assistant with the Sooners in 2004 and the quarterbacks coach there from 2006 through 2014.
MSU visits Heupel and Tennessee in Knoxville on Nov. 9.
“I’m excited for Jeff (and) his family,” Heupel said. “Knowing him a long time, he’s smart, he’s competitive, he’s been inside this league and he’ll do a nice job down there.”
Kiffin hired Lebby as his offensive coordinator just five days after being named head coach at Ole Miss in December 2019, and together they orchestrated the SEC’s top total offense in 2020 and 2021.
A notorious Twitter troll, Kiffin reposted a photoshopped image depicting himself carrying Lebby on his shoulders after Lebby was hired at MSU, akin to a father giving his son a piggyback ride. Kiffin and Lebby defeated the Bulldogs in the Egg Bowl in both their seasons together in Oxford, and Lebby’s first chance to take down his former boss will come Nov. 29 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
“I respect the heck out of who he is and what he’s done, the job he’s done and the energy he’s created,” Lebby said. “(The memes are) a little childish. But that doesn’t mean I don’t respect him.”
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