Jeff Lebby first year at Mississippi State graded by Greg McElroy

Greg McElroy barely passes Mississippi State’s Jeff Lebby for his first season in Starkville.

McElroy gave out an average grade to Lebby for the work in his coaching debut on ‘Always College Football’.

“Year one? Not a success though I’ll give it a C for Jeff Lebby,” McElroy said last week.

On the positive, Lebby brought the offensive mind from his time as a coordinator at Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and UCF. It wasn’t one of their better units as of late or where it was at its best under Mike Leach but was better than they had the season prior under Zach Arnett as they averaged 25.8 ppg. from 377.2 yards of offense.

“We knew the offense was going to be exciting. That was the reaction when Jeff Lebby got the job – ‘Well, he’s going to score but what will things look like on the defensive side?'” said McElroy. “If anything, he’s going to put together a really compelling and exciting product for Mississippi State fans. That was the reason why he was hired. That’s what they said when they hired him – like, hey, he’s going to score points and be fun to watch. It was too. There are a lot of things that were fun to watch last year with Mississippi State.”

However, Mississippi State went just 2-10 and 0-8 for their worst records both overall and in conference since the early 2000s. There are things under consideration with that as the expectations were that they wouldn’t be great anyways playing the kind of competition they did and in the middle of this first season for Lebby. Still, the record was what it was with them not beating a power opponent while also losing a blowout at home to a team from the MAC.

“They had an interesting season…Their first-year record was just 2-10. It wasn’t great. It was about where a lot of people expected them to be, at least in the SEC. They were picked to finish 15th out of 16. So it’s not a massive surprise that they went just 2-10,” said McElroy. “They had a really difficult schedule that included a trip to Georgia, trip to Texas, Tennessee, and Ole Miss. They faced five teams that were ranked in the Top-15 at the time of their matchup. They went winless in the SEC for the first time in 22 years and they were outscored 311-169 in league games.

“They had a massive overhaul offensively with what they brought in the portal. They lose their quarterback…I don’t know. Either way, it was not a great start. Losing to Toledo the way they did? Losing to Arizona State the way they did? Not great. But really tough schedule.”

McElroy doesn’t fully yet even see where the Bulldogs are going into year two under Lebby. Anything would just about be much better than last year’s record, though, with them now looking to be back bowl-eligible after ending a thirteen-year streak with their past two seasons.

“There’s a lot of room for growth,” said McElroy. “Almost impossible to get a feel for where this team could go here in the future.”