Jeff Lebby: 'We're nowhere close to where we're gonna be'
New Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby has made it through his first Spring in Starkville. However, he still feels like the team isn’t close to where it’s going to become before the start of the season.
Lebby is a coach known for his offensive system. It’s an offense that has been influenced under by coaches like Art Briles, Josh Heupel, and Lane Kiffin. However, Lebby also knows that it’s not an offense that can be learned overnight, and he explained there’s still plenty to work on following Mississippi State’s spring game.
“Again, I like where we’re at,” Jeff Lebby said. “I think it’s going to be completely different come fall. Just from the standpoint of understanding. I love that we got to live a bunch of game situations whether it was today or earlier in the three scrimmages we had in the spring, and our guys understand what this thing needs to look like.”
For the past two seasons, Jeff Lebby was the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma. In 2023, the Sooners had the fourth-ranked scoring offense in college football, averaging 41.7 points per game. Oklahoma was also third in total offense, with 507 yards per game.
“We are nowhere close to where we are going to be. Again, we’ve got guys that have played a lot of ball, maybe not here, but all over the country that are going to play a lot of ball for us next year and I like that about our unit on offense.”
One player who looks like they’re going to be key to Mississippi State’s offense this season is transfer quarterback Blake Shapen. He’s also a player that Jeff Lebby specifically praised.
“Yeah it’s a huge deal for us and obviously as we move forward, quarterback play is gonna give us an opportunity to be in a bunch of football games and go win a bunch of games. And that’s, you know, that’s how I’ll always view it. Proud of Blake’s demeanor, his toughness, his edge, how his work and love the fact that he took care of the football today,” Lebby said.
“He’s got a ton of work to do. I think he’s got a chance to be, not a good player, but a great player. And I mean, he’s serious about being great and again, that’s probably what I’m most proud of.”
Jeff Lebby details what stood out to him in Mississippi State’s spring practices
This spring, Jeff Lebby emphasized that he was excited by how willing the Bulldogs were to come and work to improve each practice.
“I think what stood out the most was our guys’ eagerness to go to work every day and their attitude and effort coming into the building. We’ve had great energy every single day. That’s been a huge stress of ours, it’s not just making sure it’s not just another Tuesday morning, it’s not just another Wednesday meeting, it’s not just another Thursday walkthrough. Being incredibly present every single moment, being incredibly intentional, and finding ways to get better. So, that’s what I am most proud about,” Lebby said.
“There’s a lot of different areas to work on. We’ve got to continue to create depth here in the next couple of weeks with everything that is going on, and we will do that. But, again, proud of where we are at but totally different sight of where we are going.”