STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Jeff Lebby ducks into a nearby open room as construction workers loudly clang away in his office as part of a summer remodel.
This is where we'd typically make the obvious comparison to what Lebby inherited as Mississippi State's new coach, but it wouldn't be the appropriate analogy. Mississippi State football didn't need a remodel when Lebby arrived, it needed an emotional rebuild.
Lebby is the Bulldogs' third coach in as many seasons. The players who stuck with Mississippi State first had to deal with the trauma of losing an adored coach, Mike Leach, who passed away on Dec. 12, 2022, due to complications of a heart condition. As the team tried to heal, defensive coordinator Zach Arnett got promoted to the big job, completely changed the Bulldogs' signature offensive approach under Leach and was fired after a single 5-7 season.
Coaching changes are part of the sport, but no one prepares you for the sudden loss of a beloved figure like Leach, perhaps the most unique character in all the best ways that college football has ever seen. No one did things like Leach, which made him great and refreshing, but that style would always make the transition to the next person challenging. It'd be a lot for anyone to go through, especially a group of 20-something college students with the media spotlight on the entire experience.
It's a tricky experience for a first-time coach to navigate, too. How do you get buy-in from a group that's still working through the trauma? To get the whole operation moving in the same direction when you're their third voice in as many years preaching a grand new vision?
For Lebby, it was about meeting them where they were. He scheduled meetings with every player on the team to understand what each individual was going through. He was in the building around his players as much as he was allowed. Most importantly, he was trying to create a sense of stability and to show everyone on the team he wasn't going anywhere.
"I wanted these guys to have some dang hope," Lebby said.
When Mississippi State athletic director Zac Selmon thought about what he wanted in his next football coach, he considered what had already worked in Starkville.
Previous offensive-minded coaches like Leach and Dan Mullen had success worth examining. With the help of quarterback Dak Prescott, Mullen elevated the Mississippi State program to heights it had never experienced before, including the No. 1 spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff Rankings. Mullen provided a blueprint for what was possible in Starkville when everything lined up right.
But it was also about the talent naturally available in Mississippi. Selmon recognized a program that had developed an in-state pipeline of future defensive stars like Chris Jones and Jeffrey Simmons. He believed that if the next coach could keep that pipeline going and build a new one that attracted top offensive talent from neighboring states, it would pay major dividends in an ultra-competitive SEC that now included Texas and Oklahoma.
Mississippi State talked to more than 20 candidates, including, as Selmon put it, "household name head coaches," but Lebby increasingly felt like the right fit. Lebby built a reputation as one of the nation's top offensive coordinators, from UCF to Ole Miss and finally to Oklahoma under coach Brent Venables.
Lebby's ties to Baylor-- he worked there from 2008 to 2016 under father-in-law Art Briles -- could've given some ADs pause. Briles was fired in 2016 amid an investigation into the university's sexual assault scandal, and a picture of Briles and Lebby on the field following Oklahoma's win over SMU last season created a social media stir, for which Lebby later apologized.
But Selmon's preexisting relationship with Lebby from their shared time at Oklahoma lent itself to a natural trust and confidence. Selmon praised Lebby as a "great family man" with both a strong IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence).
Selmon checked on Lebby with trusted coaches, such as Tennessee's Josh Heupel and Kentucky's Mark Stoops. All that, plus Lebby's clear-eyed vision for how the Bulldogs could be successful in this ever-changing version of college football, ultimately won over the Mississippi State AD.
"I wanted someone who could build upon our history of great players we've had here and then make it fun and exciting," Selmon told CBS Sports. "I want to go play in that system. I want to go play fast, and I want to be able to throw the football down the field. For every position on the field, there's something for you that's fun and an exciting style to play. I thought that was really important for where we're at and knowing the gap that we have to make up for to get to where we want to go, especially with the expanded playoff."
The exciting offense has resonated with players. As offensive lineman Albert Reese IV succinctly explained it: "Ball go up high, receiver catches it and everybody's happy."
From the night he landed in Starkville on Nov. 26, 2023 to a wild scene of ringing cowbells, it was a mad rush for Lebby to build out his coaching staff, re-recruit the roster he inherited and try to add a few valuable pieces via the transfer portal. There's a reason athletic directors are making moves on coaches earlier and earlier in the season ahead of the critical early signing period in mid-December. There was no time for Lebby to have a long learning curve.
To help him get up to speed, Lebby retained, and then promoted, associate AD for football administration David Wilczewski, who worked under previous Mississippi State coaches Leach, Arnett and Joe Moorehead in Starkville. Lebby couldn't afford an early mistake and needed someone he could trust to make sure nothing slipped through the cracks. "D-Wil is a guy who has run point on a ton of things for me," Lebby said. "He's been incredible for me and done a great job."
Lebby wanted a defensive coordinator with SEC experience and plucked Coleman Hutzler off Nick Saban's last Alabama staff. He paired Hutzler with Matt Barnes, who most recently Memphis' defensive coordinator but had previous experience at Ohio State and Maryland. He wanted offensive coaches who already understood his terminology and leaned into hiring guys who had experience with his system. The lone exception was adding former Mississippi State receiver Chad Bumphis, who quickly earned a reputation as an up-and-coming offensive coach as Utah's receivers coach.
The most critical early decision, though, may have been finding a new quarterback after the departure of Will Rogers, who started 40 games at Mississippi State before transferring to Washington. Lebby had a reputation as a QB guru, but the transfer portal QB market was aggressive and hectic. Big money flew around, and programs had to strike fast if they wanted a viable starting option. Mississippi State was an early program mentioned for Oregon State transfer DJ Uiagalelei, who ultimately went to Florida State, but Lebby had his sights set on a Big 12 quarterback with whom he was familiar: Baylor's Blake Shapen. After starting 23 games over three years for Baylor, Shapen was looking for a situation where he could compete immediately.
When Lebby called, the chance to play in the SEC for a creative, offensive-minded coach was too much for Shapen to pass up. He had long been impressed with Lebby's offensive approach, which he had seen up close in the last two seasons.
"It was special to watch -- the tempo they played with, how fast they played and the rhythm the quarterback got into," Shapen said. "It was very fun watching it, and I knew that if I ever got a chance to play in an offense like that, I'd jump right at it."
With his quarterback in hand, Lebby was ready to start building toward the 2024 season.
There's an understated nature to Lebby, the 40-year old son of a high football coach who seems to fit in well in a down-home college town like Starkville. He's never going to generate a rash of headlines with a single tweet the way his former boss and coach of in-state rival Lane Kiffin can.
"Not even a little bit," Lebby about trying to compete in that area.
Don't expect any soliloquies on pirates or vikings like Leach, either.
But the father of two can crank it up, especially after he's properly caffeinated. (A six-shot shaken iced espresso in the hotter months before a switch to a six-shot Americano when it cools down). Mississippi State starts its mornings early under Lebby, a big departure from the typically afternoon-arriving Leach, with Lebby meeting with the quarterbacks at 6:45 a.m. before a team-wide meeting at 7:30 a.m. An energetic Lebby, coffee cup in hand, shows up and quickly gets the guys fired up and ready for what's to come that day.
"He runs one of the best programs in the country," said linebacker Stone Blanton, who transferred this offseason from South Carolina. "His schedule is better than anything I've ever seen. He keeps the players fresh, he knows how to have fun and he knows how to win."
The fun part is an underrated yet critical component for a program that has been through as much as Mississippi State has in recent years. There needed to be more joy, more reason to be excited to come into work each day. There's no paint-by-numbers formula to creating that within an organization, though Lebby has stressed fun, toughness, competitiveness and accountability.
"We're gonna have fun inside the building every day," Lebby said. "That doesn't mean it's gonna be easy -- it's supposed to be really hard -- and we want that and we're great with that. But being able to enjoy what you do and who you do it with matters to me. People understand the energy inside the building is genuine, it's real and just guys having great perspective and being thankful and grateful for opportunity."
Said Selmon, "There's no perfect utopia, but at least letting kids know we care about you, we love you and we're going to push you hard. We're going to be connected with you. It was always in my mind with how much turnover our players have had over the last two-and-a-half years."
The positive effects of that approach were evident in a Week 1 56-7 win over Eastern Kentucky. Shapen totaled four touchdowns in an explosive offense that players say Lebby likes to call "Showtime." The goal, according to Shapen, is simple enough: score a lot of points and have as many explosive plays per game as possible.
The latest test of that approach comes in a Week 2 clash on the road against an Arizona State program that just put up 48 points in a win over Wyoming. It pits two of the youngest coaches in the game against each other, both of whom took over programs in need of some serious TLC. With a home date against Toledo next week, Mississippi State could be 3-0 headed into a home game against Florida if it can leave Tempe with a victory. Early momentum like that can be huge for a first-year coach, especially on the recruiting trail, where Mississippi State currently has the No. 38 class for 2025, according to 247Sports.
Only one game in to a new coaching regime, Lebby has already accomplished something monumental in Starkville. He gave a team, that has been as emotionally tested as any in the country the last couple of years, a reason to hope again.
