STARKVILLE, Miss. — Jeff Lebby geese into a close-by open room as development staff loudly clang away in his workplace as a part of a summer time transform.
That is the place we might sometimes make the plain comparability to what Lebby inherited as Mississippi State’s new coach, however it would not be the suitable analogy. Mississippi State soccer did not want a transform when Lebby arrived, it wanted an emotional rebuild.
Lebby is the Bulldogs’ third coach in as many seasons. The gamers who caught with Mississippi State first needed to cope with the trauma of dropping an adored coach, Mike Leach, who handed away on Dec. 12, 2022, as a consequence of issues of a coronary heart situation. Because the crew tried to heal, defensive coordinator Zach Arnett received promoted to the massive job, utterly modified the Bulldogs’ signature offensive strategy underneath Leach and was fired after a single 5-7 season.
Teaching modifications are a part of the game, however nobody prepares you for the sudden lack of a beloved determine like Leach, maybe essentially the most distinctive character in all one of the best ways in which school soccer has ever seen. Nobody did issues like Leach, which made him nice and refreshing, however that type would at all times make the transition to the following particular person difficult. It might be so much for anybody to undergo, particularly a bunch of 20-something school college students with the media highlight on your entire expertise.
It is a difficult expertise for a first-time coach to navigate, too. How do you get buy-in from a bunch that is nonetheless working by way of the trauma? To get the entire operation transferring in the identical path while you’re their third voice in as a few years preaching a grand new imaginative and prescient?
For Lebby, it was about assembly them the place they had been. He scheduled conferences with each participant on the crew to know what every particular person was going by way of. He was within the constructing round his gamers as a lot as he was allowed. Most significantly, he was making an attempt to create a way of stability and to point out everybody on the crew he wasn’t going wherever.
“I wished these guys to have some dang hope,” Lebby stated.
When Mississippi State athletic director Zac Selmon thought of what he wished in his subsequent soccer coach, he thought of what had already labored in Starkville.
Earlier offensive-minded coaches like Leach and Dan Mullen had success value analyzing. With the assistance of quarterback Dak Prescott, Mullen elevated the Mississippi State program to heights it had by no means skilled earlier than, together with the No. 1 spot within the inaugural School Soccer Playoff Rankings. Mullen supplied a blueprint for what was attainable in Starkville when every little thing lined up proper.
However it was additionally concerning the expertise naturally out there in Mississippi. Selmon acknowledged a program that had developed an in-state pipeline of future defensive stars like Chris Jones and Jeffrey Simmons. He believed that if the following coach might preserve that pipeline going and construct a brand new one which attracted prime offensive expertise from neighboring states, it will pay main dividends in an ultra-competitive SEC that now included Texas and Oklahoma.
Mississippi State talked to greater than 20 candidates, together with, as Selmon put it, “family title head coaches,” however Lebby more and more felt like the correct match. Lebby constructed a fame as one of many nation’s prime offensive coordinators, from UCF to Ole Miss and at last to Oklahoma underneath coach Brent Venables.
Lebby’s ties to Baylor — he labored there from 2008 to 2016 underneath father-in-law Artwork Briles — might’ve given some ADs pause. Briles was fired in 2016 amid an investigation into the college’s sexual assault scandal, and an image of Briles and Lebby on the sphere following Oklahoma’s win over SMU final season created a social media stir, for which Lebby later apologized.
However Selmon’s preexisting relationship with Lebby from their shared time at Oklahoma lent itself to a pure belief and confidence. Selmon praised Lebby as a “nice household man” with each a powerful IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence).
Selmon checked on Lebby with trusted coaches, corresponding to Tennessee’s Josh Heupel and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops. All that, plus Lebby’s clear-eyed imaginative and prescient for the way the Bulldogs could possibly be profitable on this ever-changing model of school soccer, in the end gained over the Mississippi State AD.
“I wished somebody who might construct upon our historical past of nice gamers we have had right here after which make it enjoyable and thrilling,” Selmon instructed CBS Sports activities. “I need to go play in that system. I need to go play quick, and I need to have the ability to throw the soccer down the sphere. For each place on the sphere, there’s one thing for you that is enjoyable and an thrilling type to play. I believed that was actually essential for the place we’re at and realizing the hole that we’ve to make up for to get to the place we need to go, particularly with the expanded playoff.”
The thrilling offense has resonated with gamers. As offensive lineman Albert Reese IV succinctly defined it: “Ball go up excessive, receiver catches it and everyone’s comfortable.”
From the night time he landed in Starkville on Nov. 26, 2023 to a wild scene of ringing cowbells, it was a mad rush for Lebby to construct out his teaching workers, re-recruit the roster he inherited and attempt to add a number of priceless items by way of the switch portal. There is a purpose athletic administrators are making strikes on coaches earlier and earlier within the season forward of the essential early signing interval in mid-December. There was no time for Lebby to have an extended studying curve.
To assist him rise up to hurry, Lebby retained, after which promoted, affiliate AD for soccer administration David Wilczewski, who labored underneath earlier Mississippi State coaches Leach, Arnett and Joe Moorehead in Starkville. Lebby could not afford an early mistake and wanted somebody he might belief to ensure nothing slipped by way of the cracks. “D-Wil is a man who has run level on a ton of issues for me,” Lebby stated. “He is been unbelievable for me and carried out an important job.”
Lebby wished a defensive coordinator with SEC expertise and plucked Coleman Hutzler off Nick Saban’s final Alabama workers. He paired Hutzler with Matt Barnes, who most lately Memphis’ defensive coordinator however had earlier expertise at Ohio State and Maryland. He wished offensive coaches who already understood his terminology and leaned into hiring guys who had expertise together with his system. The lone exception was including former Mississippi State receiver Chad Bumphis, who shortly earned a fame as an up-and-coming offensive coach as Utah’s receivers coach.
Probably the most essential early determination, although, could have been discovering a brand new quarterback after the departure of Will Rogers, who began 40 video games at Mississippi State earlier than transferring to Washington. Lebby had a fame as a QB guru, however the switch portal QB market was aggressive and hectic. Large cash flew round, and applications needed to strike quick in the event that they wished a viable beginning choice. Mississippi State was an early program talked about for Oregon State switch DJ Uiagalelei, who in the end went to Florida State, however Lebby had his sights set on a Large 12 quarterback with whom he was acquainted: Baylor’s Blake Shapen. After beginning 23 video games over three years for Baylor, Shapen was searching for a scenario the place he might compete instantly.
When Lebby known as, the possibility to play within the SEC for a artistic, offensive-minded coach was an excessive amount of for Shapen to go up. He had lengthy been impressed with Lebby’s offensive strategy, which he had seen up shut within the final two seasons.
“It was particular to look at — the tempo they performed with, how briskly they performed and the rhythm the quarterback received into,” Shapen stated. “It was very enjoyable watching it, and I knew that if I ever received an opportunity to play in an offense like that, I would leap proper at it.”
Together with his quarterback in hand, Lebby was prepared to start out constructing towards the 2024 season.
There’s an understated nature to Lebby, the 40-year outdated son of a excessive soccer coach who appears to slot in effectively in a down-home school city like Starkville. He is by no means going to generate a rash of headlines with a single tweet the way in which his former boss and coach of in-state rival Lane Kiffin can.
“Not even a bit bit,” Lebby about making an attempt to compete in that space.
Do not count on any soliloquies on pirates or vikings like Leach, both.
However the father of two can crank it up, particularly after he is correctly caffeinated. (A six-shot shaken iced espresso within the hotter months earlier than a swap to a six-shot Americano when it cools down). Mississippi State begins its mornings early underneath Lebby, a giant departure from the sometimes afternoon-arriving Leach, with Lebby assembly with the quarterbacks at 6:45 a.m. earlier than a team-wide assembly at 7:30 a.m. An brisk Lebby, espresso cup in hand, exhibits up and shortly will get the blokes fired up and prepared for what’s to come back that day.
“He runs probably the greatest applications within the nation,” stated linebacker Stone Blanton, who transferred this offseason from South Carolina. “His schedule is healthier than something I’ve ever seen. He retains the gamers contemporary, he is aware of tips on how to have enjoyable and he is aware of tips on how to win.”
The enjoyable half is an underrated but essential element for a program that has been by way of as a lot as Mississippi State has lately. There wanted to be extra pleasure, extra purpose to be excited to come back into work every day. There is not any paint-by-numbers method to creating that inside a corporation, although Lebby has confused enjoyable, toughness, competitiveness and accountability.
“We’re gonna have enjoyable contained in the constructing day-after-day,” Lebby stated. “That does not imply it is gonna be straightforward — it is alleged to be actually exhausting — and we wish that and we’re nice with that. However having the ability to get pleasure from what you do and who you do it with issues to me. Folks perceive the power contained in the constructing is real, it is actual and simply guys having nice perspective and being grateful and grateful for alternative.”
Stated Selmon, “There is not any excellent utopia, however a minimum of letting youngsters know we care about you, we love you and we will push you exhausting. We will be linked with you. It was at all times in my thoughts with how a lot turnover our gamers have had over the past two-and-a-half years.”
The optimistic results of that strategy had been evident in a Week 1 56-7 win over Jap Kentucky. Shapen totaled 4 touchdowns in an explosive offense that gamers say Lebby likes to name “Showtime.” The purpose, in response to Shapen, is straightforward sufficient: rating a variety of factors and have as many explosive performs per recreation as attainable.
The newest check of that strategy is available in a Week 2 conflict on the highway in opposition to an Arizona State program that simply put up 48 factors in a win over Wyoming. It pits two of the youngest coaches within the recreation in opposition to one another, each of whom took over applications in want of some critical TLC. With a house date in opposition to Toledo subsequent week, Mississippi State could possibly be 3-0 headed into a house recreation in opposition to Florida if it could actually depart Tempe with a victory. Early momentum like that may be big for a first-year coach, particularly on the recruiting path, the place Mississippi State at present has the No. 38 class for 2025, in response to 247Sports.
Just one recreation in to a brand new teaching regime, Lebby has already achieved one thing monumental in Starkville. He gave a crew, that has been as emotionally examined as any within the nation the final couple of years, a purpose to hope once more.