Jeff Lebby on the Egg Bowl: 'It's gonna mean an absolute ton'

The Egg Bowl is always one of the joys of Thanksgiving weekend for football fans, but for Ole Miss and Mississippi State supporters, it is time for civil war as the Rebels and Bulldogs meet on the field.

Lane Kiffin really has the Ole Miss program humming in Oxford, having just produced an 11-2 season which only featured losses to top five SEC foes Alabama and Georgia. With stars returning at quarterback and wide receiver, plus a wealth of talent brought in on the defensive side of the ball via the transfer portal, the Rebels have College Football Playoff aspirations on their mind.

Of course, there’s one party in particular who would love to spoil such dreams, and that’s the new regime at Mississippi State. Following a tough couple of seasons with the tragic passing of Mike Leach transitioning into the Zac Arnett era, the Bulldogs decided to start afresh in the new-look SEC in 2024, hiring none other than former Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby.

Lebby was the Rebel OC at the start of Kiffin’s tenure, calling the offense for 2020 and 2021 before heading to Oklahoma to join Brent Venables. Results were mixed for the Sooners in two seasons there, but he moved on this offseason when MSU called with an SEC head coaching job.

Having coached at Ole Miss and now leading State, Lebby is intimately aware of the importance of that rivalry game at the end of the year, and expressed his passion for the matchup to Greg McElroy on his YouTube show, Always College Football.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s going to mean a ton, it’s going to mean an absolute ton,” Lebby remarked. “It means a ton to everybody inside the state. It means a ton to our University, to our president and our athletic director. So that’s going to be a fun one. There’s no doubt about it.”

Like any coach, Jeff Lebby doesn’t want to dump a season’s worth of importance on just one game, but he knows that there will be no bigger opportunity for signature year one victory than that Egg Bowl bout on Black Friday.

“There’s going to be a lot of business to be handled before, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know that it’s going to be a fun one on that Friday afternoon.”

This year will be especially tough, since Lebby is in his very first year of a rebuild while having to hit the road to face what’s likely to be a top 15 caliber Ole Miss club.