What Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby said about Tennessee on Monday

What first-year Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby said during his weekly press conference on Monday, previewing his team’s game against No. 7 Tennessee on Saturday night (7 Eastern Time, ESPN) at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville:

His relationship with Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, his thoughts on Heupel as a coach

“A guy that I have more respect for than maybe anybody in the profession. A great friend and somebody that has been a great mentor to me. I had the opportunity to work for him and it was an incredible experience. A guy that’s incredibly consistent and you look at what he’s done, the amount of success he’s had, the culture he’s created at an incredible place. A ton of respect for who he is as a person, as a father, as a husband and then obviously, as a football coach, as well.”

Josh Heupel moving around as a coordinator and then head coach before getting to Tennessee in 2021
“Seeing a great deal of consistency and him being exactly who he is supposed to be as a leader. Those players inside the building and his staff, they know what to expect every single day. Results won’t dictate who he is as a person and how he interacts. There’s a lot of that, that you hear me talking about non-stop every single day as we’re fighting to build this.”

What he saw on film that caused Mississippi State to have protection issues against UMass 
“After going back and watching it, it was pretty close to what we talked about postgame on Saturday. At times, we’ve got to have the ability to firm up on the edge at tackle and there’s times where we’re creating pressure at the quarterback position where we’ve got to make sure we’re not moving until we have to. Finding the soft spots, manipulating the pocket the way we need to, to be able to help ourselves up front.”

If Mississippi State’s previous road games (at Texas, at Georgia) prepares the Bulldogs for playing at Tennessee 
“The challenge this Saturday is a challenge of its own. I do think living some of the experiences we’ve lived throughout the season helps us understand what it’s going to be like. Again for us, so many young guys playing, especially on the offensive side of the ball. But our guys understanding the crowd noise and the environment, that part of it and creating strain and stress, we’ve done a better job. I thought we did better at Georgia than we did the week before at Austin (Texas).

“We need to be able to carry that growth over because again, the setting, the environment, night game, it will be an electric atmosphere. We’ve got to do a great job of communicating and finding ways to take that out of the game.”

What he saw in Dillon Gabriel as a freshman quarterback compared to what he sees now with Michael Van Buren
“Accuracy, anticipation and toughness. To me that’s some of the greatest things Dillon brought to the table with those things and Mike, where he’s got to continue to play better, better and better. He was challenged again today as he walked into the building. I’m proud of the way the dude has played.

“His toughness, his leadership, his ability to go put it on the line. But he is getting challenged right now in the moment to go play better. He’s taking it and he’s running with it. From the standpoint of being accurate, having really good anticipation and playing with great toughness, those are things (Gabriel) is still doing that he was doing when he was 18 years old. When you have that you have a chance to build around it.”

What stands out about Tennessee’s defense
“A dominant defensive line. They’re able to roll seven or eight guys and there’s not a drop-off. To me that is what sticks out in a big way and they’ve owned the line of scrimmage in every single game they’ve played. They play incredible run defense. It’s a group that’s really deep and also really old. There’s juniors and seniors in their front and they play really well.”

His time at Oklahoma as a student assistant, when Josh Heupel was a graduate assistant on the same staff
“That’s where it all started. Obviously, I was a student assistant and Heupel was a graduate assistant. We were grunting it up in a tiny little office, spending a lot of hours together breaking down opponents and finding ways to create shortcuts for the staff and the players. For me at a really young age and after Heupel had had such an unbelievable career playing there, for me there was great growth inside. Being 19 and 20 years old and go at it every single day with him was great. That was the start of it and obviously, coached against each other for a long time with both of us being in the Big 12. Great familiarity and he’s done an unbelievable job.”

His thoughts on the SEC fining teams for fake injuries 
“Of course, I’m all in favor. Even this year, it’s come up a ton as we’ve been in the middle of some games. I love that is where it’s going.

What he has seen from Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson
“This guy has been incredible running through trash, winning one-on-ones. Arm tackles don’t tackle him and that is what stands out on tape. You have to get multiple people to the football. You got to get multiple people to get him on the ground. That will be a huge part of it come Saturday night.”