Jeff Lebby opens up on the impact Art Briles will have on Mississippi State

In his first season as the head coach at Mississippi State, Jeff Lebby has faced questions about the kind of impact that former Baylor head coach and his father-in-law Art Briles is going to have on the program.

Lebby spoke about the impact that Briles will have on Mississippi State while making an appearance on the College GameDay Podcast. He explained that Briles has, for him, been a mentor who has helped shape the way he sees the game and therefore how he wants the Bulldogs to operate.

“I just think whether it’s when we’re on vacation here at the end of June and the entire family is able to be together just the small talk conversation of whatever it may be,” Jeff Lebby said. “From watching ball on TV or talking about a quarterback or talking about a recruit, just having somebody that had the success that he had, that loves it the way he loves it and being able to talk through things with regardless of how big or how small of a deal it is, is just phenomenal for me.”

Jeff Lebby coached under Art Briles at Baylor. There, he held multiple offensive roles, including running backs coach and passing game coordinator. He married Briles’ daughter, Staley. Together, they have two children.

“A man that I’ve known since the day I was born and is somebody that as I got into it from the football landscape and the philosophical side of it is so much of who we are today.”

Art Briles himself was a very successful coach at Baylor before that time came to an end in a scandal with his firing.

Because of that scandal, there was backlash in 2023 while Jeff Lebby was at Oklahoma when Art Briles was on the field after one of the Sooners’ games. Shortly after the backlash, Lebby changed his social media profile picture to one of him alongside Briles. He also explained the situation from his perspective.

“Just want everybody to understand my father-in-law, his presence on the field after the game the other night is something that created a distraction and I apologize for that,” Lebby said. “That was not the intent at all, the intent was just to celebrate with my family.”

The connection between Lebby and Briles is going to follow Lebby thanks to the scandal at Baylor. It’s also impossible to not understand how Briles is going to have an impact on Lebby as both a family member and a coach who he worked for in the past.