Blake Shapen explains how Dillon Gabriel has helped him with transition into Jeff Lebby's offense

As Blake Shapen prepares to quarterback Mississippi State in the Jeff Lebby offense, he’s gotten advice from an expert: Dillon Gabriel. Now at Oregon, Gabriel spent four of his five college seasons thus far with Lebby as his offensive coordinator.

With Lebby leaving Oklahoma this past season to take the first head coaching job of his career in Starkville, the two went their separate ways. Shapen transferred to Mississippi State this offseason after spending the past four seasons at Baylor.

He spoke with On3‘s Andy Staples at SEC Media Days about how he came to get to know Gabriel this offseason, leading to Lebby’s former QB to offer advice to his current one.

“I actually got to spend some time with Dillon Gabriel at the Manning Passing Academy,” Shapen said. “Great dude. I was able to talk about the offense. I texted him the other day like, ‘what was the hardest thing for you in the offense?’ So just being able to pick his mind and figure out what his answers will be has been big to me.”

The duo of Gabriel and Lebby helped UCF to have top 10 passing offenses in both 2019 and 2020. They later reunited in Oklahoma and again helped the Sooners finished No. 6 in passing yards per game this past season.

Additionally, Ole Miss was No. 7 in passing offense during Lebby’s only season as the Rebels offensive coordinator in 2021 under Lane Kiffin.

All of that bodes well for Shapen to find plenty of success this season under Lebby. He is coming off of a year in which he was limited due to injury but still managed to throw for 2,188 yards, 13 touchdowns and three interception across eight contests.

In addition to having a transfer quarterback, Mississippi State also brought in a slew of transfer receivers for Lebby’s first season at the helm. That includes Kelly Akharaiyi, who is fresh off of a 1,000-yard season at UTEP in 2023.

He and other weapons will provide hope for a Bulldogs team that went from 43rd to 111th in passing offense this past year under Zach Arnett. They brought in Lebby to fix that and hopefully, with a little help from Dillon Gabriel, Blake Shapen can become the next QB to thrive in this system.

Mississippi State is scheduled to kick off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 against Eastern Kentucky.