Jeff Lebby details how much he learned about being a head coach from Brent Venables

After five seasons coaching as an offensive coordinator between stops at UCF, Ole Miss and Oklahoma, Jeff Lebby is learning the ropes for how to lead his own program now at Mississippi State.

Lebby is no stranger to running is own unit, even at the highest level with some terrific Ole Miss offenses under Lane Kiffin and then two years under Brent Venables at Oklahoma. But every new head coach attests, there is a major difference in responsibilities when leaping from coordinator to head coach — and most of all in the SEC.

On3’s Andy Staples points out, though, that Lebby did get a unique experience at Oklahoma that could serve him well as he starts out at MSU. Over on the On3 YouTube channel, Staples interviewed Lebby and made a point to ask if watching Brent Venables begin his first major head coaching gig gave the new Bulldog coach a nice example of how to lay the groundwork at his own first head coach role.

Lebby confirmed that learning under Venables certainly helped, since he was watching a longtime assistant like himself try to build out an elite program under his own guide for the very first time.

“Yeah, I think it was just the understanding of, man, being patient and making sure that we’re doing the right thing for our locker room,” Lebby answered. “You know, making decisions based on people.”

It’s cliche for coaches to say they want to target the right kind of talented kids, but Jeff Lebby witnessed first hand how that approach paid off by year two for the Sooners.

“You know, obviously, guys got to be good enough. But man, at the same time, we want to put good people in that locker room. And so, that is something that Coach V, honestly, he talked about from day one. And, you know, I think it paid off for us.

Year one obviously was the way it was. But then, year two, you look at that after setting the foundation. Man, bet on people and put the right pieces in place in that locker room. Protect that locker room with who you’re picking, who you’re taking, who you’re recruiting, and making sure they’re about the right things.”

For Lebby at Mississippi State, there was always going to be roster turnover, especially in the 2020s, but he made sure to do his homework on the new guys he did bring in.

“So, not panicking, being patient and taking the right people is what I learned, and that’s something that we’ve tried to do.”

Mississippi State only had 15 guys transfer in and 17 transfer out, which seem like large numbers, but really aren’t too crazy compared to other teams with coaching changes. As Lebby stated, there was a careful process in selecting exactly who would become a Bulldog.