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Brent Venables will have a job search on his hands this offseason after offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby left for Starkville this week.
Meet Jeff Lebby
Lebby has been around some dynamic offenses in his years of coaching. He came up in the Baylor system as a positions coach from 2008-2016, a period in which Baylor put up video game numbers for years on the offensive side of the ball. He got out of Waco shortly after the Art Briles and Baylor football sexual assault scandals and took his talents to UCF.
He had the Knights ranked second in total offense in the country in his first year as offensive coordinator. He then left for Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin in 2020, where his offense also put up record setting numbers in his two years in Oxford.
Lebby then returned to his alma mater, Oklahoma. After a tough 6-6 year last season, Lebby transformed the Sooner offense. Oklahoma put up 502 yards per game this season, best in the Big 12 and fourth best in the nation.
Now, he’ll be in Starkville, Mississippi, taking over a team coming off a disappointing 5-7 season.
https://twitter.com/HailStateFB/status/1728908703779475862
Mississippi State masterclass
Lebby is a big hire for a program like Mississippi State, which has been a SEC West bottom feeder for years now.
Mike Leach tragically passed away last season, leaving the Bulldogs in a tough spot coming into this year. They put Zach Arnett in charge, and that didn’t go well. The Bulldogs went 5-7 (1-7) and missed out on a bowl game for the first time since 2009. MSU finished dead last in the SEC in points per game and 11th in yards per game.
Lebby enters after having his Sooner offense lead the Big 12 in yards and points per game, finishing 10-2 just a year after going 6-7.
Tough job ahead
Lebby and the Bulldogs will have their work cut out for them in 2024. Mississippi State currently ranks 46th in the 2024 recruiting rankings, which puts them dead last in the now 16-team SEC.
MSU has a fairly easy out of conference schedule next season:
- Eastern Kentucky
- at Arizona State
- Toledo
- UMass
Once conference play starts, it’s a different story. No dates have been released, but Mississippi State will have this slate at home:
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Missouri
- Texas A&M
Their away schedule is next to impossible; the Bulldogs might be lucky to win one road SEC game next year.
- at Georgia
- at Texas
- at Tennessee
- at Ole Miss
What’s next for Oklahoma?
OU has a tough task ahead. The Sooners had a solid season, bouncing back from an atypical 6-7 finish last year. While they did beat rival and No. 7 Texas, they lost the final edition of Bedlam to Oklahoma State, costing them a Big 12 title game berth.
They now lose their dynamic offensive coordinator just before they enter the gauntlet that is the SEC. Just this morning, they had their first offensive decommitment from WR Dozie Ezukanma. The Sooners still have a great class, but Venables and Co. will have to work hard to keep their guys.
OU will also need to find a new OC. We’ll see if they take a shot at an OC elsewhere, like Colorado’s Sean Lewis or Kansas’ Andy Kotelnicki. Or they could promote someone internally, such as Seth Littrell or Matt Wells.
