Jeff Lebby adds former Bulldog great Erroll Thompson to staff
Another Mississippi State great is coming home to the football staff to help his Alma Mater.
Former Bulldog linebacker Erroll Thompson announced on X Sunday night that he would be joining Jeff Lebby’s staff as a defensive assistant. A source within the program said that his official title will be a Defensive Fellow.
Thompson comes back to Starkville after beginning his journey in coaching this past season. After Thompson’s professional career came to an end, he coached on the defensive staff at Biloxi High School in 2024 and helped the Indians to a playoff berth. Now, he’ll get his first crack at coaching in college.
As a player, Thompson put together one of the best careers for a linebacker this millennium. He spent four years starring on State’s defense and racked up 306 tackles in 49 games with 21.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, six pass deflections, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
Having redshirted as a true freshman in 2016, Thompson got in the mix as a redshirt freshman with a star-studded defense and earned 46 tackles with 5.5 TFL and 2.5 sacks as he was named Freshman All-SEC. He was a part of one of the nation’s best defenses as a sophomore in 2018 and had one of his best seasons as a Bulldog with career highs in TFL (8.5) and sacks (3.5).
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Thompson had 84 tackles, 3.5 TFL and 0.5 sack as a junior and finished out his career in 2020 with a career-high 96 tackles, 4.0 TFL and 3.0 sacks. He finished his career with over 300 tackles and was the first player to hit that milestone since Mario Hagan did it in the early 2000’s.
The Florence (Ala.) native was a standout for his Eagles football team in high school and came to State as the No. 13 player in the state of Alabama and the No. 15 inside linebacker. He had early offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee and others.
Thompson is one of several new faces on the staff in the last week as Lebby also added a new offensive line coach in Phil Loadholdt from Colorado, a defensive ends and outside linebackers coach in Vincent Dancy also from Colorado and veteran defensive mind Paul Rhoads who is a Defensive Analyst.
