Jeff Lebby: 'There's genuine energy inside our building'

Jeff Lebby is tasked with turning around the Mississippi State football program after its 5-7 seasons in 2023, which marked the first time since 2009 that the Bulldogs weren’t eligible for a bowl game.

As a first-year head coach, Lebby is tasked with instilling a new culture and mindset within the Bulldogs program. According to the new Mississippi State coach, he can feel renewed vitality when he walks into work every morning.

“I just think there’s genuine energy inside our building. I call it genuine juice when guys walk in and there is a great feel and a great buzz where we go to work every single day,” Lebby told ESPN’s Rece Davis and Pete Thamel. “And for us, that is important. Again, that’s me setting the tone setting, what it’s going to be like, what the expectation is, what the standard is and guys understanding that we need to enjoy what we’re doing, too.”

The concept behind “genuine juice,” as Lebby explained, stems from two things. First, Lebby’s love for coffee. He drinks six shots of espresso every morning. Second, it’s the mindset that Lebby’s father, who he played football for in high school, instilled within him from a young age. To goal is to have a “genuine love,” for what you do and it shaped the Mississippi State head coach’s perspective and has kept him thankful for the successes he’s had in his career.

Taking over the job at Mississippi State will see him face one of the toughest obstacles of his coaching career. The Bulldogs program has been in a tough spot for the past couple of years after Mike Leach passed away. Zach Arnett took over but lasted just one year before being relieved, meaning the Bulldogs are looking toward Lebby as a long-term solution to get things back on track in Starkville.

“It’s going to be hard — it’s supposed to be incredibly hard,” Lebby continued. “We all want it to be hard. This is SEC football, it’s exactly what we want. But at the end of the day, having fun and enjoying what you do every single day, that matters in a great way to me and our guys. Our guys need to have a great college experience and they do that through relationships with their staff, with their teammates, and being able to go have fun and go do it.”

Lebby certainly has the coaching pedigree and appears to have the right mindset to have success as a head coach. Now, it’s on him to turn the program around as he looks to add recruits and transfers with a similar mindset and passion for the game.