Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby on Friday announced the hirings of Anthony Tucker to coach running backs and Jon Cooper to coach tight ends.

Tucker was most recently the co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Indiana for one year, and before that spent two seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Utah State, helping the Aggies win 10 games and the Mountain West Conference championship in 2021.

From 2018 through 2020, Tucker was the running backs coach at Central Florida, where he worked with Lebby for the first two of those seasons. He previously coached running backs at Maryland, running backs and wide receivers at Arkansas State and wide receivers at Idaho State. Tucker started for two years as a receiver at Fresno State and later spent brief stints with the New York Giants and St. Louis Rams.

MSU returns plenty of talent in the running backs room. Starter Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks battled injuries in 2023 and has one more year of eligibility remaining. Freshman Seth Davis showed flashes of brilliance before an injury in the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss, and Jeffery Pittman and Keyvone Lee are also expected to return.

“Coach Tucker has been instrumental in helping produce some of the country’s most explosive and exciting offenses,” Lebby said in a statement. “His track record speaks for itself. He is a proven winner that has elevated the careers of so many under his tutelage.”

Cooper comes to Starkville from North Texas, where he was the offensive line coach for the Mean Green this past season. He and Lebby were together at Oklahoma in 2022, where Cooper worked as an offensive analyst.

Before that, Cooper was the offensive line coach at Western Carolina in 2021 and the tight ends coach for Arkansas in 2020. He coached tight ends at UCF in 2018 and 2019, where he also overlapped with Lebby.

His coaching career started with a two-year stint as an offensive graduate assistant at Oklahoma, his alma mater, where he started at center and was named Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2008. Cooper went on to play four seasons in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and Tennessee Titans.

The Bulldogs were integrating the tight end position back into their offense this season after doing away with the Air Raid. Antonio Harmon caught 14 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown in a hybrid receiver/tight end role, while freshman Malik Ellis, a converted offensive lineman, was strictly used as a blocker.

“Over the course of his career, (Cooper) has been an integral part of coaching some of the nation’s most high-powered offensive attacks, plus he’s very familiar with our style of play,” Lebby said. “Coach Cooper’s expertise will be invaluable to us and will elevate the play of our tight ends.”