Jeff Lebby believes Kirby Smart is 'as good as there's ever been'

Although Mississippi State and Georgia will be enemies on the field Saturday, MSU head coach Jeff Lebby wasn’t shy to praise UGA headman Kirby Smart. On Monday, Lebby raved about Smart’s success during his tenure at the helm of Georgia.

“As good as there’s ever been,” Lebby said of Smart. “As he’s gotten to Georgia, and now you look at what he’s done over his tenure, it really is second to none. The amount of success he’s had, the years that he’s put back-to-back-to-back — again, it really is the standard right now in college football.

“He’s had a ton of success. To me, he’s done it in a way that has been built to sustain developing high school kids, signing great high school football players from the south and mixing in different pieces positionally. But he’s got a blueprint that is proven and it’s worked.”

Since taking over at Georgia in 2016, Smart has led the program to a 98-17 overall record, two SEC championships and two national titles. For his efforts, he’s been named the SEC Coach of the Year three times.

Through five games in the 2024 campaign, it looks like Smart will have more accolades to brag about at the end of the year. Georgia is 4-1, with its sole loss coming on the road against Alabama. Kirby Smart and Co. currently have the third-best odds to win the national championship, according to FanDuel.

It’s difficult not to simply admire Smart’s success but, on Saturday, Lebby will attempt to make a stain on the 48-year-old head coach’s jaw-dropping résumé.

After winning its season opener against Eastern Kentucky, Mississippi State has lost four games in a row. Most recently, the Bulldogs suffered a 35-13 beatdown at the hands of No. 1 Texas. Sitting at 0-2 in conference play, the pressure is mounting for Mississippi State to find a victory.

If Mississippi State could stun Georgia, it’d certainly relieve some of the building pressure around the program. Kirby Smart knows Mississippi State is hungry for an upset and isn’t overlooking the matchup.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Jeff Lebby, his offense and what he’s done, where he’s been and the people he’s worked for in his career,” Smart said. “They’re all really good offensive coaches. They’re hard to defend because they spread you out, they space you out and they use tempo. They count your numbers in the box.

“They’re almost always going to be right in terms of what they run. You’ve got to beat the man in front of you to beat them. You’ve got to outwork the guy to win two gaps sometimes. It’s hard because of the way they play. They’ve got really good backs.”

On Saturday, Mississippi State and Georgia will go head-to-head at 4:15 p.m. ET. The game will air live on the SEC Network.