Lebby's message remains on moving Bulldog program forward

ATLANTA – Jeff Lebby walked through the halls of the Omni Hotel on Wednesday morning with a little different demeanor than he did a year ago in Dallas.

It was year two representing Mississippi State at SEC Media Days and a lot has happened for the football coach since his first. Lebby’s first year in Starkville was filled with turbulence as he lost his starting quarterback in the fourth game of the season and finished the year 2-10.

It was the worst season of football that State has witnessed in over 20 years and it has some pressure on the coach to turn things around. As the coach showed up in Atlanta on Wednesday, his message was clear – the Bulldogs have to turn it around. The work has already begun.

“I think there’s been a lot of hard work and there’s been a lot of different situations that have created a team, and you put them through some strain and some toughness throughout the summer to create that,” Lebby said. “You look at it, 80% of our roster is in year one or two of being a part of the program. And I think, as we’ve gotten into it, guys that have been here that are year two understand what it needs to look like. And then guys that are new guys, man, they’ve picked up to it really well. There has been great buy in, there’s been great consistency, and excited about getting on the grass more.”

A lot of work went into putting the roster in a better position and Lebby felt he accomplished that. The Bulldogs hit the transfer portal hard to pull in talent across the board and it started on the lines of scrimmage.

More than 30 players were brought in out of the transfer portal with another 25 plus in the signing class. After seeing deficiencies from the roster he inherited, it was vital that Lebby address some changes.

“Yeah, and we needed that. For us, from a roster standpoint, we had to get it flipped,” Lebby said. “We’re nowhere close to where we need to be, but we’re going to have the ability to go practice in fall camp the way we need to, very similar to how we practice in spring ball.”

The talk of the offseason and all of last year was around State’s defense.

First-time defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler produced, arguably, the worst defensive unit in 20 years. The bulk of the issues came from the defensive line and the lack of depth, size and talent up front. The spring showed that all three of those things were improved and they’ll have a season to show that improvement. The inability to get off the field consistency, get after the quarterback and stop the run became an issue, but that’s one they’re hoping to resolve.

“Defensively for us, we want to play the way we need to play to be able to play winning football,” Lebby said. “I think that’s a huge piece of it, creating turnovers, creating negative plays, getting the ball back to the offense. That’s where we need to make a huge jump. We had to change the roster and flip the roster. I think we’re in a much better place today than we were a year ago today, and excited about that opportunity.”

Despite the record in year one, Lebby sees progress in his team. There was progress made in the offseason to improve the roster and make the squad more competitive, but the Bulldogs also had growth as a team through the tough times last year.

If State is able to turn things around, the adversity that the team and staff faced and how they grew from it. The results on the field will be what bears it out.

“I think people that watched the game, that know the game, saw a football team that had great belief and saw a football team that had great energy, that had passion, that played for each other and played for their coaches. And to me, that speaks to what’s going on inside the building,” Lebby said. “The result was not what we want, wasn’t the expectation. But if you know football and you watch you can tell that it’s a group of guys that believe, and so people want to be a part of that. There’s great belief, passion, toughness, confidence inside the program right now.”