Heading into the 2025 season, Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby is turning theory into action. After navigating an injury-plagued 2024, his offense is ready to roar, especially with a fully healthy Blake Shapen under center. Lebby also emphasized the importance of building depth upfront and in the backfield, bringing in key transfers from North Alabama and restabilizing their offensive line. The message is to earn everything, every day.
Coach Jeff Lebby on having a fully healthy Blake Shapen
“Yeah, I mean, for us having Blake back is a huge, huge step, um, being year two inside the, the offense, the system, the program, how he’s getting coached every day. Gonna really have the ability to go cut loose and uh put a lot on his plate to be able to go get us, uh, in a position to, to have great success on the offensive side of the ball, but we want to be incredibly physical, we wanna attack and we want to have the ability to be really, really balanced. So that’s, uh, that’s who we’ve always been and what we’ll continue to look for.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on the addition of Spencer Dowland and Koby Keenum
“Yeah, excited about both of those guys. Uh, man, Koby’s about the right stuff. I think he’s got some position flexibility, but done a really good job at center for us. I love his toughness and who he is in the building every single day. And then Big Spencer, he’s a big man that’s got a chance to be a really good player, uh, you know, just a baby in it right now, but excited about the kind of person that he is and how much he loves it. And to me, that’s what ultimately is gonna give him a chance to be a good player for us.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on Anthony Evans’ transfer to Mississippi State
“Yeah, I had great familiarity with and had recruited him out of high school for a long time, uh, had great familiarity with the family, really knew uh what, what we were getting, and then, you know, coaching against him, uh, for the last really two years, um, you know, having the ability to see him as a return guy and, and do some of the things he did when the ball was in his hands, man, it did, it gave me some, some good feels to be able to have him in the slot and being a return guy for us. And I do, I think he’s gonna be put in position to, uh, to go have a really good year, and excited for him.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on what he has learnt from his first season as a head coach
“Yeah, I’ve talked about a little bit today, but I think making sure I’m doing a great job of empowering the right people inside the program, um, to be able to run with things and to go do what they need to do inside of each department, uh, to give us a chance to be at our best in all areas.”
“And so for me, obviously I’m gonna call the plays, incredibly involved in the day to day and the scheme and the personnel on both sides of the ball and special teams from the personnel standpoint, so empowering people. I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned. I’ve got a great chief of staff.
“Our sports medical program, medicine program, is phenomenal, and the people, just the people that are in charge of their departments. Letting them go do a really good job. And I think everybody inside the building understands the expectation, the programmatic things that we went through year one to get us to where we are today, but that probably is the thing that I’ve learned the most.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on Jackson Arnold
“Yeah, Jackson was a guy that obviously was my number one guy coming out of that class and Gatorade Player of the Year, all those things. Had him as a true freshman and, and, uh, he had all of it, and he, he still does. He’s the same, same young man. So, excited for him to get the restart and and a new opportunity.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on Blake Shapen’s growth
“Yeah, I think you look at Blake and how he handled the situation last year. And having the ability to mentor that room and some of the young guys inside our program, it speaks to exactly who he is. And so he is, he’s a guy that loves to lead, he loves to teach. The thing that I love about Blake most is his edge and how he plays the game.
He’s a young man, that will find ways to inspire by how he plays. And so we’ve got to do a really good job of keeping him upright. Keeping him clean. I think the thing from a mental standpoint that’s been really fun is our conversations have sped up in a great way. You know, we can create shortcuts because we’re speaking the exact same language. We’ve lived it now together, uh, which is a huge piece of it. And, and, and Blake is constantly fighting for every single inch. So, he’s done a lot of things on the field and off the field to set himself up to go have the year he needs to have.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on athletic director Zac Selmon’s impact
“Zac’s done an incredible job, and he’s just been a great leader for us. Uh, he’s incredibly consistent. Obviously, what he’s done from a fundraising standpoint, I mentioned it in my opening statement, uh, in there just, just a little bit ago, but we’ve shattered every single record, uh, that we have had from a fundraising standpoint. And it’s through his leadership, the team that he’s put together around him is elite and, man, happy to go to war with him every single day for a long time.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on Mario Craver’s potential and transfer
“Yeah, I think you see it on tape. Mario was a young man that had the ability to take the top off and create explosive plays, and that was his game and that was his game in high school and, uh, who he is as a player.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on Blake Shapen’s growth during injury
“Yeah, I think he was really able to dive into the mental aspect of the game and see it from my perspective and our perspective of, man, how we want to go attack people and why, uh, behind it. And that was, that was the fun piece for me. He sat in the offensive staff room every single day.He found ways to create involvement, and he found ways to create growth.
We were challenging him with that nonstop, and as hard as it was, and it’s gonna end up being an incredible blessing because again, this guy’s got year two, inside the system and has the ability to, to, to go have the year that he needs to have.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on changes caused by NIL and revenue sharing in recruitment
“Yeah, again, I think the rev share piece of it, there’s been a bunch of questions on it. To me, there’s, there’s a lot of unknown. I think we’re gonna have to go through this cycle and sign the 26 class. And have the ability to get to the next cycle to see exactly where everything plays out and how it plays out. So, for us from a recruiting standpoint, and I mentioned this as well, Zac and his team, what we’ve been able to do from a fundraising standpoint has put us in a really strong position, and we’ll continue to work off of that momentum as we build this class.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on the pressure of 4 straight non-conference games to start the season
“Yeah, I don’t, I don’t know if pressure is the right word. We’re excited about the opportunity, August 30th, you know, to be able to go on the road. We’ve got a great in-state opponent, um, and go to Hattiesburg, obviously do a ton of recruiting inside our state. So, that’ll be a great opportunity for us to get started the way we need to get started. And that’s what it’s all pointing towards, and then having the ability after that to come home for 4 straight weeks will be huge for our program.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on football passion in Mississippi State
“Yeah, I think one of the coolest things about, uh, Starkville and Mississippi State is the passion and the connection and the love that people have for our university, our football program. I believe that you walk into Davis Wade and in a big-time environment, and there’s nothing better than the cowbells. So there is great passion around our program, and I don’t take that for granted.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on steps to foster a good connection between older and younger players
“I feel like that, that answer is really simple. It’s time. You got to spend time, you know, and that’s the only way we get done what we want to get done. It’s, it’s through being around each other and getting to know each other and going through some hard together. And I think that, uh, that’s how you create connection, you create trust, and you get young people to do what you want them to do.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on outgoing transfer Kevin Coleman Junior
“Yeah, Kev was a guy that had a ton of production before, had a ton of production this past year, and a bunch of targets, and a guy that, if put in position, will have a chance to have another productive season.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on Blake Shapen’s pivotal growth
“It was really just a couple of opportunities and asking questions, you know, the question that was asked created awareness for me that, hey, he’s made some real growth, you know, and, I think as you listen to young people talk that they’ll tell you if you’ll do a good job of listening. And as he sat in there for a couple of those last weeks and was asking questions about the why and how we’re trying to attack somebody, I thought that was a great sign of growth.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on how he evaluates a player from the transfer portal
“There’s a lot of processes that we have in place that give us the opportunity to what I call protect the pick and protect the locker room. To me, the everyday way to talk about it is one. They have to be good enough.”
“They have to be good enough to have the ability to come in and affect the outcome of the game. And then the next piece of it is they got to be about the right things, they gotta be the right people, and so those boxes have to be checked for us to go get them. And just like everybody, we’re not looking for perfect people by any stretch. But we want guys that love football,l that have great intent and are thankful and grateful for the opportunity.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on how revenue sharing impacts relationship building in recruitment
“Yeah, I don’t think relationships ever got away from recruiting. I really don’t. I lead in a way that’s incredibly relational, and I try to be that way with the entire program. Recruiting is a huge piece of that, as we all know. And so we’ve always been relationship-driven. So from my viewpoint, that has not been affected.“
Coach Jeff Lebby on incoming transfer Malick Sylla
“Yeah, I think Malick’s a young man that’s got a great opportunity this fall. He’s a guy that’s got great length, he’s got great size. He has the ability to be able to go rush the QB the way we’re gonna need him to.”
“Um, and, and he is, he’s what we’re looking for from a body type standpoint at that position. So, a guy that got better and better throughout the spring, has had a solid summer, and man, he’s got, he got 4 months to be able to go make the most of it. So excited about his opportunity.”
Coach Jeff Lebby on Mississippi State playing Southern Mississippi and Alcorn State
“Yeah, for us, as we’ve set the schedule up, obviously, I wasn’t a part of setting this schedule. I think the exciting thing for me is that we are, we’re starting on the road, but inside our home state. And that is, that’s a huge deal for us. And, uh, again, from a recruiting standpoint, how much we recruit in Hattiesburg and, and south of there, having the ability to, to go on the road inside our state will be something that, uh, we’re incredibly excited about.”
You can watch the entire interview here.
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