Jeff Lebby

• 2003-06: Oklahoma – Student assistant
• 2007: Victoria (Texas) Memorial High School – Offensive line/tight ends coach
• 2008: Baylor – Assistant director of football operations
• 2012-16: Baylor – Running backs coach
• 2015-16: Baylor – Passing game/offensive recruiting coordinator
• 2017: Southeastern (NAIA) – Offensive coordinator
• 2018: UCF – Quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator
• 2019: UCF – Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach
• 2020-21: Ole Miss – Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach
• 2022-23: Oklahoma – Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach
• 2024-present: Mississippi State – Head coach

Jeff Lebby Coaching History

Mississippi State hired Jeff Lebby as the 36th coach in program history on Nov. 26, 2023. His predecessor, Zach Arnett, was dismissed during his first season in Starkville.

Lebby enters the 2024 season as a first-time head coach. The 40-year-old climbed the coaching ladder over a period of 20 years, beginning while he was in college.

Lebby is an Oklahoma alumnus. He played offensive line, but his Sooner football playing career was cut short due to injury. Lebby immediately started down the coaching career path, working as a student assistant.

In 2007, the year he graduated from Oklahoma, Lebby’s first coaching gig came at Victoria Memorial High School in his home state of Texas. After one year, Lebby would be back in college football.

Lebby joined the Baylor staff in 2008, making him part of the Art Briles coaching tree. Lebby is closer to Briles than a typical protégé as the former Baylor head coach’s son-in-law. The family connection led to Briles controversially appearing on the field at Oklahoma as a guest of Lebby.

In 2012, Lebby became Baylor’s running backs coach. FootballScoop named Lebby its Running Backs Coach of the Year in 2013. Lebby also held the titles of passing game coordinator and offensive recruiting coordinator in 2015 and 2016.

Briles was fired by Baylor ahead of the 2016 season after a university investigation into the handling of sexual assault allegations involving football players. Lebby did not remain at Baylor after Matt Rhule was hired to succeed Briles as full-time head coach.

Lebby spent the 2017 season at NAIA program Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. In 2018, he was back in the NCAA.

It was an Oklahoma reunion in Orlando, as Josh Heupel hired Lebby to his UCF staff as quarterbacks coach in 2018. Lebby coached McKenzie Milton, who threw for 2,662 yards and 25 touchdowns.

Lebby became UCF’s offensive coordinator in 2019. The Knights set a school record and ranked second nationally in total offense (540.5 yards per game) and fifth in the country in scoring offense (43.4 points per game). Quarterback Dillon Gabriel recorded 3,653 passing yards and 27 touchdowns playing for Lebby in 2019.

Lebby’s next stop was in the SEC at Ole Miss on Lane Kiffin’s staff for the 2020 and ’21 seasons.

Led by standout quarterback Matt Corral, Lebby’s unit broke the SEC record for total offense in conference play with 562.4 yards per game in the 2020 campaign. In 2021, Lebby’s Rebels again led the SEC in total offense with 492.5 yards per game, which ranked No. 6 nationally.

Brent Venables poached Lebby from Ole Miss for his Oklahoma staff in 2022.

OU was No. 13 in total offense in Lebby’s first season with 474 yards per game. The Sooners improved to No. 3 in 2023, with 507 ypg (346.9 passing, 184.5 rushing). Oklahoma was also No. 4 in scoring with 41.7 points per game.

Gabriel transferred to Oklahoma, reuniting with Lebby. At Oklahoma, Gabriel threw for 6,728 yards and 55 touchdowns over two seasons of playing in Lebby’s scheme. Gabriel added 18 rushing touchdowns over his two Sooner seasons.

In five seasons as an offensive coordinator, Lebby’s teams have finished in the top six nationally in total offense three times at UCF (No. 2, 2019), Ole Miss (No. 3, 2020) and Oklahoma (No. 4, 2023). His s scheme has produced five individual 3,000-yard passing seasons between Gabriel and Corral.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.