Lane Kiffin reveals Jeff Lebby involvement with Ole Miss through bowl

Oklahoma made quite a splash last week by landing Jeff Lebby as offensive coordinator. But Lebby’s current team, Ole Miss, still has a game left — and it was worth wondering if he’d coach in it.

Rebels coach Lane Kiffin addressed that on Monday, saying Lebby will be on the sidelines for Ole Miss’ Sugar Bowl matchup with Baylor.

“He’ll coach the game,” Kiffin said. “We’re happy for him, going back to his alma mater. [It’s a] great opportunity for him. He’s done an unbelievable job here and he’s going to finish this thing off, which is awesome. It’s kind of basically this team, no matter what it takes. You’re not seeing players opt out. It’s a special team and he’s a huge part of that.

“He’s doing work there, he’ll be back later this week. We respect dual scheduling with him so he can get that job and do this too. Usually, it’s a head coach, like being at Alabama and you get a head job or something. But we’re dealing with a coordinator.”

Lebby suffered a career-ending injury at Oklahoma but stayed on as a student assistant. After a year at the high school level, he went to Baylor from 2008-16, where he worked his way from offensive quality control coach to passing game coordinator and running backs coach.

He spent a year at Southeastern before going to UCF from 2018-19. That’s when Kiffin brought him to Ole Miss, and now he’s getting ready to return to his alma mater under Brent Venables.

Jeff Lebby says goodbye to Ole Miss after taking Oklahoma OC job

When Oklahoma hired former Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables as head coach, it needed to get a strong offensive coordinator. The Sooners got their guy — and he said farewell to Ole Miss last week.

News broke Wednesday that Jeff Lebby is getting ready to take over as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator. The Sooners haven’t made it official, but Lebby tweeted a goodbye to Ole Miss and Oxford Wednesday night.

“Hard to describe how thankful we are as a family for the last two years,” Lebby tweeted. “What an incredible ride it has been – THANK YOU Ole Miss – THANK YOU Oxford.”

Lebby has been at Ole Miss for two years and led the Rebels to a top-10 offense both years. This past season, Ole Miss finished the regular season with the No. 4 offense in the country, averaging 506.7 total yards per game.

He also played a big role in the development of Matt Corral, who was in conversation for the Heisman Trophy. Corral is considered one of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s NFL Draft and threw for more than 3,000 yards for the Rebels.