Almost Showtime
August 26, 2024 | Football, Joel Coleman
Jeff Lebby excited to begin year one in Maroon and White.
STARKVILLE – It has to be an understatement to say that Saturday is a big day for Jeff Lebby.
For two decades, Mississippi State's first-year head coach worked his way up the ladder to hold the reins of his own program. He's gone from an Oklahoma offensive lineman whose own playing career was cut short due to injury, to one of the brightest offensive minds in all of college football. In the last 20 years – particularly the last seven or eight – a whole lot of points and yards have been racked up at premier college football programs thanks to the wisdom of Lebby.
Now, it's Mississippi State's turn to be the beneficiary, and it's also finally Lebby's time to be a head coach. In more ways than one, it's indeed almost showtime in Stark Vegas.
So exactly what will Lebby be thinking of just prior to Saturday's 5 p.m. CT kick against Eastern Kentucky? A little bit of the past, a little bit of the present and a little bit of the future, he said at his first game-week press conference on Monday.
"I think for me, [I'll think of] our players than have come before us and the coaches that have come before me and understanding I'm just a keeper of the room right now," Lebby said. "Hopefully it's a long time from now that there's somebody else that will lead this program, and what I want to do is make sure I leave it better than I found it. Fighting every single day to get that done and get that accomplished is my goal for our fanbase and our university and everybody I go to work with every single day.
"I'm sure that point will come. Right now, it seems like a long way away. But I'm excited to be able to lead our football team down that tunnel Saturday evening."
All the Maroon and White faithful are excited to see it, too, knowing that wherever Lebby leads a team, excitement has typically followed. This is a man who, as an offensive coordinator, had his units ranked inside the top 25 in the country in plays of 20 or more yards in each of the last five seasons.
From 2019 through 2023, Lebby led all offensive coordinators in games where his teams scored 50 or more points. He accomplished the feat 14 different times.
The Lebby resume is full of even more astonishing stats and impressive feats, but all that was then. This is now, and a new group of players are set to heed Lebby's teachings and light up scoreboards.
Lebby has confidence in his guys to do precisely that. The Bulldogs themselves certainly have the capability to do it. Lebby simply doesn't want his guys to put too much pressure on themselves to perform on Saturday.
"I think there's going to be a ton of emotion…I don't think there's any doubt about it," Lebby said. "You build up to this point and it being year one of laying the foundation. Our guys are going to be incredibly excited to play. My hope for them [is] making sure we're not using energy on things that don't matter and finding ways to make sure our energy is used in a way that will help us go win the football game and play the way we need to play."
No one could blame any player this weekend for coming out extraordinarily amped up. No one could blame Lebby either given his own personal journey to the moment.
It's all already been special for Lebby, and he's planning on Saturday just being the first of many shows at State.
"It's been humbling [since getting hired]," Lebby said. "Hopefully everybody that's had the opportunity to come in contact with me and my family knows how thankful we are to have the opportunity [to be here] and seen us trying to connect. I think that is one of the coolest things about where we live and where I get to work every single day. There's this incredible amount of connection. There's an incredible amount of community and people that have great love for our university.
"For me, man, that's fun to be a part of. It's been humbling, and we're just getting started. Let's hope this s the first of a whole bunch of [seasons]."
