Jeff Lebby was Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Brent Venables in 2022 and 2023, so he knows what makes Venables tick.
Last season, Lebby started his own head coaching journey at Mississippi State, but that hardly means that his Oklahoma ties aren’t still there. On Wednesday morning at SEC Media Days in Atlanta, Lebby’s comments to reporters contained a bit of that Sooner flavor, and he particularly had encouraging words for his former boss.
It’s no secret that things haven’t exactly gone great in Norman during Venables’s first 3 seasons. With Lebby on his staff during Venables’s first season at OU in 2022, the Sooners struggled to a 6-7 record and a 3-6 mark in the SEC. Things got better in 2023, when Venables and Lebby led Oklahoma to a resurgent 10-3 record that included an impressive 7-2 SEC mark.
Then things regressed last season for Venables, whose offense struggled mightily with Lebby in Starkville. Oklahoma fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell in the middle of the season, a sign of how poorly things were going on that side of the ball. It all added up to another 6-7 record, which means those passionate OU fans who carry so many expectations for their tradition-rich program have gotten restless.
Fast-forward to Wednesday morning, when Lebby stepped to the podium to talk to reporters about his Bulldogs but also touched on Venables’s plight at Oklahoma. Lebby stressed how much he believes in Venables.
“Toughness. Consistency. Conviction. He is going to be very, very true to his process. He is the same man every single day, not letting results dictate who is going to show up in the building every single day,” explained Jeff Lebby about the man he used to go to battle with every Saturday.
“Those are the things to me that are going to create stability and help them down the road.”
Sure, Lebby has his own issues at Mississippi State, coming off a forgettable 2-10 season in his first year there. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t keep an eye on things in Norman.
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.
