Jeff Lebby says Mississippi State is excited for ‘gauntlet’ schedule in 2025
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Jeff Lebby has been in coaching since 2002, and he’s learned a lot of lessons in almost a quarter-century of being a coach.
One of those lessons? Don’t back down from any challenge, no matter how hard it looks on paper. After all those years as an assistant, starting with 5 seasons at his alma mater Oklahoma, the 41-year-old Lebby finally landed his first head coaching job last year in the rugged SEC. He took over at Mississippi State, and the immediate results weren’t pretty.
Lebby’s Bulldogs struggled to a 2-10 record in 2024, and they didn’t win a conference game, going 0-8. But Jeff Lebby has dug down deep and leaned on his belief in himself and coaches like Brent Venables, who he worked under for 2 seasons at Oklahoma before getting the Mississippi State job.
Lebby has no doubt Venables will turn things around at Oklahoma, and he has no doubt in himself in righting the ship at Mississippi State. Even coming off a 2-win season, and even with a brutal schedule staring his Bulldogs in the face in 2025. There is a Week 2 showdown with Arizona State, which was a College Football Playoff team last season, and that’s before the SEC jungle begins 3 weeks later with a matchup against Tennessee, another Playoff team in 2024.
There’s literally no relief in that SEC schedule this fall for Lebby’s team, right through to the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss to cap things off. On Wednesday morning at the SEC Media Days in Atlanta, Lebby touched on the challenge that awaits his team.
“For us, it’s all about opportunity. I think I had a great awareness of what the league was when I was able to get the job. That part of it wasn’t going to change. For me and our guys, we understand what the gauntlet looks like. That’s exciting. What a great challenge, what a great opportunity. Our guys will be excited to go chase it,” Lebby told reporters.
In a few short weeks, that brutal challenge will begin, and more lessons will be learned for the coach and his players.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
