Jeff Lebby, Bulldogs enjoy solid signing day 2025

Just a couple of days after Mississippi State sat close to 50^th in the national recruiting rankings, the perception of Jeff Lebby’s third signing class took a jump over the last few days.

Lebby’s class settled at 32^nd nationally and 12^th inside the SEC, jumping up a total of 15 spots in three days. While it’s not a place that Lebby and the staff believe is the pinnacle, it showed the progress needed to continue the Bulldogs’ climb back up. Most importantly, the staff felt that their evaluations have a chance to make the foundation stronger moving forward.

 “I think the early evaluation is a huge part of our success today. Being on some of these guys early,  we trusted our eyes and we trusted the in-person evaluation. I think that is a huge factor on us having the day we’ve had,” Lebby said. “A ton of credit to the personnel department, our recruiting department. It takes a lot of people to go pull this off. Where we are, the people we battle, and understanding we’re fighting like heck to be the aggressor, not being reactionary in anything and still staying incredibly true to ourselves. Proud of the entire building for making it happen today.”

State coaches trust evaluations

Among some of the early pickups that appear to have paid off long term the Bulldogs identified players along the defensive line, at wide receiver, tight end and defensive back that could be major factors.

State got early commitments from players like TE Zayion Cotton, Edge Micah Nickerson, WR Jayden Cration, WR Zion Crumpton, WR Camden Capehart, RB JJ Hill and DL Kaleb Morris and all of those players generated some interest from others schools. Specifically, the Bulldogs had to fight off a lot of teams around the league for Cotton, Hill and Morris with a signing day flip of Nickerson over Missouri.

Hill especially had a bevy of SEC teams after him in the summer and early in the fall with Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Florida, Arkansas and others hot on his heels. The two-time Mr. Football in Class 7A, Hill never wavered in his commitment and Lebby believes he has a chance to far surpass his three-star ranking. Along with Gulfport running back Cooper Crosby, Lebby said he has the best runners in the state.

“They’re SEC backs. They’re SEC players,” Lebby said. “I don’t know what people were leery about on JJ. All he’s done is produce for a really good football team, for a place that coaches them hard, that’s got a great program. They know how to win. JJ is a winner and a guy that will do anything to help his team to win. Like playing quarterback the first five or six games because they needed him to. Another guy that I’m so proud of for being as strong as he’s been with us the entire time. There have been a lot of people that continued to stay in his ear, but he stayed strong.

“Cooper is a guy who’s had this incredible senior year, a magical senior year. You put the tape on, he can do it all. We had him camp this summer, we loved him. I love who the kid is. He’s going to have this great impact on the field. Cooper will have a great impact inside our locker room. He’s about the right things. Fired up that we got to sign those two.”

Womack headlines solid group of late additions

The big jump in the rankings came thanks to the addition of Hartfield Academy safety Bralan Womack. After cheering for the Bulldogs growing up, Womack built a relationship with Lebby that was sustained throughout his recruitment, but he took a bit of a detour.

When things heated up, Womack focused on the out of state schools. Auburn, Texas A&M, Ohio State and many others began to get the bulk of his attention. In the summer, he committed to the Tigers of Auburn and stayed true to that commitment for the majority of the season until the coaching change.

In recent weeks, Lebby and Womack heated back up and the coach got the Bulldogs back in the game. He committed to State on Monday and signed with the Bulldogs, giving the team a headliner in the class and the No. 2 safety in the country.

Along with Womack on signing day, the Bulldogs flipped Nickerson, added former Florida State DT commitment Tico Crittendon and former Arkansas commitment WR Junior Henderson. There were no bad surprises on signing day and the Bulldogs left the day feeling like it was a success. That’s something Lebby counts as a win as he heads into year three.

“I think we’re so much farther ahead than we obviously were Day 1 when I got here in comparison to that as we stand here right now. We’ve got the right people in the right seats inside our building,” Lebby said. “There’s great depth in our personnel department, great depth in our recruiting department. We need everybody pulling this rope the same direction. We’ve got that right now. I’m excited about where we’re moving this thing and how we’ll be able to recruit and sustain here for a long time as we put these classes together.”