DALLAS – First-year Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby was asked what he did to tick off the SEC.
Considering his first two league games take the Bulldogs to Texas and Georgia, certainly, he must have made the Birmingham overlords angry somehow, right?
To Lebby’s credit, he didn’t cry over the situation during Wednesday’s turn at the podium during SEC Media Days.
“That is part of the league that we're living in. I've continued to talk about this. You want to do it with the best. You want to do it against the best,” Lebby said. “We're going to have every opportunity in the world to show everyone actually who we are as a program and as a football team, and I look at that as an opportunity for our guys.”
An opportunity, yes. But it will not be an easy one.
Most coaches would cringe at what’s facing the Bulldogs in Lebby’s first year.
Mississippi State returns zero starters on offense and just two on defense after losing 26 players last year to the transfer portal.
The Bulldogs brought in 17 to help soften the blow. At least Lebby hopes so.
“We're talking about our starting quarterback, three of the five starting O-linemen, two receivers, starting running back, and on the defensive side we'll have three starters from the portal, as well,” he said. “Obviously, that’s not who we want to be. We're going to create an edge, and we're going to be able to sustain as a program because we've got great proximity to players. We're going to be a developmental program. We've got great junior colleges inside our state which is an advantage to us. So those are things, as we move forward, it will look a little bit different, but for year one, we've got guys that will go out there week one that have played a lot of ball, just not a lot of ball at Davis Wade.”
One of those transfers Lebby will be counting upon heavily is quarterback Blake Shapen, who matriculated to Starkville from Baylor.
Shapen brings experience, having started the past two seasons for the Bears. He’s coming off a year that saw him complete 184 of 298 yards for 2,188 yards and 13 touchdowns with three interceptions after missing several weeks at the beginning of the year due to an MCL injury.
Although Lebby did not offer any predictions about how the Bulldogs will fare in his first year after coming over from Oklahoma where he served as the offensive coordinator, MSU will at least attempt to use tempo to its advantage.
Everywhere Lebby has coached, his offense has finished in the Top 10 regarding tempo and pace.
With new rules allowing communication between coordinator and quarterback, could the Bulldogs go even faster?
“I think a little bit of that is a balancing act, and still being able to have some ball control and some game control while creating great tempo and great opportunity through how we play,” Lebby said. “Being the aggressor and being pedal down will be who we are, but being able to change the pace will be a little bit of it too. Being able to have that communication should make it a lot easier.”
