Head coach Jeff Lebby reflects on Day 1 of Mississippi State training camp

On Thursday and for the first time in his coaching career, Jeff Lebby opened training camp as the head coach. Lebby and his Mississippi State squad hit the practice fields Thursday morning at the Seal Complex and will continue training camp the remainder of the week.

Following practice, Lebby met with local reporters to discuss opening day among other topics:

Q: So how was the first day and what did you see?
Lebby: Our guys had great energy, just being intentional. Worked their butt off this summer to get us to this point. We have so much work to do and so much to clean up. But again, our guy’s energy, our effort, our focus and our want to get better is what it’s all about Day 1. And we’ve got that.

Q: What is your basic gameplan on Day 1 and what do you want to accomplish?
Lebby: Exactly what I mentioned. You want to see guys that are very intentional on getting better, taking to the coaching, finding ways to get coached and get coached every rep, and finding ways to strain. Again, our guys are doing that. We’ve got a ton of work to do but if we will keep being intentional in how we enter the building every day, every single rep and walk-through in practice, every single rep in meetings, we are going to get done.

Q: How much retention did you see carry over today from the spring and summer?
Lebby: Our guys have retained in a really good way because they worked at it. It’s not like they haven’t picked up the playbook since we walked off the field in the spring game. So, they’ve put in the time. We’re so much further ahead than we were when we ended the spring. That’s what you want. Now it’s about getting the young guys up to speed and the new guys up to speed and getting them work.

Q: How different is the process for older transfer to get here in June and just get started with practice today?
Lebby: It is different. There’s a lot of newness for 10-12 of our guys. For them understanding in how we are going to do what we do every single day, that’s going to take a little bit of time as we get into it. But I think we’ve got some good leadership inside our locker room that is helping with that and we’re going to continue to need that.

Q: Did today feel any different to you as the head coach starting up training camp?
Lebby: No, there was great excitement around finally being able to get started and get going and getting back on the grass. For me, Day 1 is always very similar from an excitement standpoint. We’re starting this journey together and we’re going to chase together. Now I have the opportunity to lead the entire program, which I love and I am thankful for.

Q: Where did you spend most of your day today?
Lebby: With the quarterbacks and the offense, as you could probably imagine.

Q: What do you need to see from now until the end of the month?
Lebby: We need to see guys strain. We need to see great physicality. We need to see us take great care of the football. It’s all about the ball. Defensively, it’s a fine line. You want to go get the ball and you want to see some give and take. That is hopeful for me as we go through fall camp.

Q: How big is that gap between the freshmen that got here in January as opposed to the ones enrolling in June?
Lebby: Yeah, we’ve got guys that understand how to run and then we’ve got guys that are learning how to walk. That’s really what it. Again, trying to get those guys up to speed. Those guys that came in, in June, they had really good summers. But at the same time it was Day 1 for them practicing in it. They’ve got to get up to speed. They’re finishing up finals right now so there is some give and take with that, too, academically. But the guys are doing what we are trying to do.

Q: How is quarterback Blake Shapen handling his role on the team?
Lebby: He’s all about walking the walk every single day. Our football team won’t if he won’t. He’s in the building all day every day trying to get better, encouraging his teammates to get better. That’s what we have to have from him and he’s done that and he needs to continue to do that.

Q: How much of a grind is camp going to be to make this team successful?
Lebby: All you got to do is go out there and do it. That’s reality and our guys understand. We said in the team meeting this morning the best they would feel is this morning. Those days are over. That is part of this game. It’s a violent game, it’s a physical game. It’s hard, it’s supposed to be. But we’ve got to do a good job taking care of our body when we’re out there straining.

Q: The assistant coaches mentioned it Tuesday but do you see chemistry building between position groups?
Lebby: We’ve been very intentional on being connected, as a football team, as groups, as units, and understanding it’s a lot more about the guy standing beside me than it is me. I think we do that and take that, we have a chance to be the best possible version of us as we can be.

Q: Do you get the sense that things are getting back to a normal routine now?
Lebby: Routine is good for everybody, for all of us. We’ve got 24 more practices and that routine will be really good as we go through camp. It’s simple as day-by-day, rep-by-rep, walk-through-by-walk-through, meeting-by-meeting and getting better. That routine will be good for us.

Q: What have you seen from Coleman Hutzler and Matt Barnes leading the defense?
Lebby: Coleman is a guy that’s got great presence, got great leadership ability. He’s got an unbelievable amount of experience in having to touch the entire team and leading the entire team trying to find ways to get the most out of a lot of different positions. So that’s really natural for him. Matt’s got great energy. He’s got incredible experience in calling defense. So being able to have that balance of (Barnes) helping Coleman with their great relationship has been fun to see.

Q: What do you want to see on Day 2?
Lebby: I want to make sure we are doing the things we are getting coached on to do in the meetings and get it fixed. You want to see guys go from the meeting room to the practice field and fix whatever problem there is.

Q: What did you see out of Kevin Coleman when recruiting him?
Lebby: I saw a guy that had the ability to have great production inside our offense. When I called around and asked about him, they said all the right things from mentality to toughness to who he was as a human. He’s been that. That’s a guy I’m excited about.

Q: Even though it was Day 1, was there anyone that stood out today?
Lebby: I will have to get in there and watch the tape. Our guys had the right intent today and that’s what we are looking for. We’ve got to stack days and we got to be better tomorrow morning than we were this morning.