JEFF LEBBY: Commissioner, thank you, and you were spot on there. Kane has already stole the show. He'll continue to steal the show as he will terrorize Starkville, Mississippi, for many, many years to come.
I'll piggyback off the commissioner and his opening statement as we started here I guess a couple of days ago, but couldn't be more proud to be able to be here representing Mississippi State in Dallas, Texas, Dak city, obviously one of the greatest to ever do it, one that absolutely loves his university, so Dak, thank you.
But it is, it's great to be here. It's great to be in Dallas. You look at it, seven months, I've been here seven months, and as we got boots on the ground, we said, hey, what are the things that are going to be most important to us to make sure we go have a successful year one, but also find a way to create this great foundation so we have the ability to go sustain?
For us, it was the guys knowing exactly what we expected of them as they walked in the building. Our guys knowing what they were going to get into, the expectation, the culture, and I could not be more proud as we look up seven months in, getting ready to start fall camp inside of two weeks, and our guys have taken to it. They've taken to it, and they've ran with it and our culture and who we are every single day.
We talk about four things nonstop inside the program. We talk about having fun, being tough, being competitive, and then being accountable, and we break those things down in different ways, but for me having fun in the doing, that matters.
We've got 18 to 22-year-old kids that need to have an incredible college experience. These guys need to have a great experience while at State.
It's going to be incredibly hard doing what we do. We understand that. We get to do it with the best and against the best every single day. Nobody understands that more than I do. But I want our people inside our building to have fun in the doing.
So when they walk through those double doors every day, they are able to pour into it just a little bit more because they enjoy the people they're around. They know it's going to be incredibly hard, it's going to be incredibly tough, it's going to be difficult to go do what we're going to do, but having fun in the doing to me and for us as a culture is incredibly important.
Toughness, toughness travels. This is a league that is built on toughness. Always has been, always will be. I love that fact of being able to lead our program in a way that creates opportunities for guys to be tough. Mississippi State, built on toughness and edge, and those are things that I'm incredibly proud of.
Competitive. The most competitive league in all of college football. So how many different ways can we create a competitive situation, a competitive scenario so when we get to Saturday afternoon on national television you don't get surprised by a result? So having competitive situations inside of everything that we're doing is a huge part of our program and our culture.
Then a culture of accountability, being accountable to the guy next to you. From a staffing standpoint, being accountable to the guy that you're sharing an office with or sharing a wall with every single day and doing right by the people inside the building.
I think when you talk about fun and tough and competitive and accountable, then you immediately think about the three guys that I was able to bring with me today, starting with two guys that have been at Mississippi State. They've been through a lot over the last three years.
They come in together the same class, offensive lineman who earned a starting job, played in all 12 games last year, but here's a guy that earned a starting job through spring, through toughness and through this competitive spirit of just getting better every single day. Albert is a guy who embodies exactly what we want in offensive line play and leadership inside that unit.
Here's a guy that's a college graduate, he's from Alberta, heads to Tampa, now he's made his way to Starkville, Mississippi, and he's creating this great life for himself because he invests in himself every single day.
Our in-state guy that grew up a Bulldog, John Lewis, again, a guy that played 12 ball games for us last year, has some experience, but has earned this starting role through spring football, and he's done it through consistency and toughness and leadership and accountability.
And J-Lew is a guy very similar. We get to town, create a position change for him, not playing on the line of scrimmage anymore, stacking back, playing as a second level player, and this is a guy that has taken it and run with it and has accepted the change and been a guy that's going to play at a really high level but be a huge part of our program as we move this thing forward.
I think for all of us, we understand, being a QB guy, calling the plays, getting the right quarterback was something we had to get done, and we've got our guy. I could not be more proud of how Blake has gone about his business, how he does what he does every single day.
I think when you talk about what we're going to look like from a team standpoint, it's real similar to what we're going to look like at that position: Toughness, physicality, edge, being able to go inspire your teammates to go play better every single day, and that's what Blake has done. He's put us in a position to get off the ground the way we need to. When I watched him play, I said that's our kind of guy, that's my kind of guy, so having him year one has been huge.
Could not be more thankful to be here, could not be more grateful to our administration to have the opportunity to represent Mississippi State at SEC Media Days, and with that, we'll open it up.
Q. Jeff, I think I read this right, no returning starters on offense, only two on defense. I know it's a new staff, but how daunting is that? I saw this on social media so it must be true, that Nick Saban said he tried to hire you at Alabama when he was at OU. Could you take us through that?
JEFF LEBBY: Yeah, part 1 of the question, I've talked about it a lot today already, but the climate of college football, where we're at, the portal cycle that ended in December was a huge part for us having a chance to have success year one. We're talking about our starting quarterback, three of the five starting O-linemen, two receivers, starting running back, and on the defensive side we'll have three starters from the portal, as well.
Being able to get off the ground was a huge part of it. That's not who we want to be. We're going to create edge, and we're going to be able to sustain as a program because we've got great proximity to players. We're going to be a developmental program. We've got great junior colleges inside our state which is advantage us. So those are things, as we move forward, it will look a little bit different, but for year one, we've got guys that will go out there week one that have played a lot of ball, just not a lot of ball at Davis Wade.
Part 2, Coach Saban, just an honor to have conversations with him as we went through some things. Could not be more thankful for opportunity, and at the time it was something where I felt like needed to be exactly where my feet were, and he did pretty good. He did pretty good.
Q. John Lewis is going to be filling a big void at linebacker with Bookie Watson and Jett Johnson gone. I know you weren't there with those guys, but he's got a lot on his shoulders this year. How confident are you he can step up as a leader on and off the field for this program?
JEFF LEBBY: Yeah, J-Lew has done that, that's why he's here today representing us. A guy that he's going to play alongside with -- there's multiple guys inside that room that are going to give us a chance to create depth, but a guy that, again, comes to us from another SEC school, Stone Blanton, has played at a really high level, has played inside this league, knows what it's supposed to look like. He's another guy, along with some others, that will help us fill that void.
Q. How did your time under Brent Venables the last two years help you prepare for this job, both under Brent but also just your time at Oklahoma? Secondly, what can people expect from Jackson Arnold?
JEFF LEBBY: Yeah, getting an opportunity to work for Coach V the last two years, he created an opportunity for me to go back to my alma mater and be able to get that thing off the ground with him. A great experience for me is being able to see him do it from year one to year two and being this great coordinator who had an incredible amount of success and being able to get into that head coaching chair and find ways to keep getting better.
It was all about what's best for the program, it's all about what's best for the people inside our room, as consistent of a leader and a man as there is, I believe that, in all of college football. Indebted to him forever for giving me that experience.
Part 2 to the question, obviously Jackson, I think everybody understands who knows that scenario and relationship knows how I feel about him and him having the ability to continue great quarterback play at that university.
I'll piggyback off the commissioner and his opening statement as we started here I guess a couple of days ago, but couldn't be more proud to be able to be here representing Mississippi State in Dallas, Texas, Dak city, obviously one of the greatest to ever do it, one that absolutely loves his university, so Dak, thank you.
But it is, it's great to be here. It's great to be in Dallas. You look at it, seven months, I've been here seven months, and as we got boots on the ground, we said, hey, what are the things that are going to be most important to us to make sure we go have a successful year one, but also find a way to create this great foundation so we have the ability to go sustain?
For us, it was the guys knowing exactly what we expected of them as they walked in the building. Our guys knowing what they were going to get into, the expectation, the culture, and I could not be more proud as we look up seven months in, getting ready to start fall camp inside of two weeks, and our guys have taken to it. They've taken to it, and they've ran with it and our culture and who we are every single day.
We talk about four things nonstop inside the program. We talk about having fun, being tough, being competitive, and then being accountable, and we break those things down in different ways, but for me having fun in the doing, that matters.
We've got 18 to 22-year-old kids that need to have an incredible college experience. These guys need to have a great experience while at State.
It's going to be incredibly hard doing what we do. We understand that. We get to do it with the best and against the best every single day. Nobody understands that more than I do. But I want our people inside our building to have fun in the doing.
So when they walk through those double doors every day, they are able to pour into it just a little bit more because they enjoy the people they're around. They know it's going to be incredibly hard, it's going to be incredibly tough, it's going to be difficult to go do what we're going to do, but having fun in the doing to me and for us as a culture is incredibly important.
Toughness, toughness travels. This is a league that is built on toughness. Always has been, always will be. I love that fact of being able to lead our program in a way that creates opportunities for guys to be tough. Mississippi State, built on toughness and edge, and those are things that I'm incredibly proud of.
Competitive. The most competitive league in all of college football. So how many different ways can we create a competitive situation, a competitive scenario so when we get to Saturday afternoon on national television you don't get surprised by a result? So having competitive situations inside of everything that we're doing is a huge part of our program and our culture.
Then a culture of accountability, being accountable to the guy next to you. From a staffing standpoint, being accountable to the guy that you're sharing an office with or sharing a wall with every single day and doing right by the people inside the building.
I think when you talk about fun and tough and competitive and accountable, then you immediately think about the three guys that I was able to bring with me today, starting with two guys that have been at Mississippi State. They've been through a lot over the last three years.
They come in together the same class, offensive lineman who earned a starting job, played in all 12 games last year, but here's a guy that earned a starting job through spring, through toughness and through this competitive spirit of just getting better every single day. Albert is a guy who embodies exactly what we want in offensive line play and leadership inside that unit.
Here's a guy that's a college graduate, he's from Alberta, heads to Tampa, now he's made his way to Starkville, Mississippi, and he's creating this great life for himself because he invests in himself every single day.
Our in-state guy that grew up a Bulldog, John Lewis, again, a guy that played 12 ball games for us last year, has some experience, but has earned this starting role through spring football, and he's done it through consistency and toughness and leadership and accountability.
And J-Lew is a guy very similar. We get to town, create a position change for him, not playing on the line of scrimmage anymore, stacking back, playing as a second level player, and this is a guy that has taken it and run with it and has accepted the change and been a guy that's going to play at a really high level but be a huge part of our program as we move this thing forward.
I think for all of us, we understand, being a QB guy, calling the plays, getting the right quarterback was something we had to get done, and we've got our guy. I could not be more proud of how Blake has gone about his business, how he does what he does every single day.
I think when you talk about what we're going to look like from a team standpoint, it's real similar to what we're going to look like at that position: Toughness, physicality, edge, being able to go inspire your teammates to go play better every single day, and that's what Blake has done. He's put us in a position to get off the ground the way we need to. When I watched him play, I said that's our kind of guy, that's my kind of guy, so having him year one has been huge.
Could not be more thankful to be here, could not be more grateful to our administration to have the opportunity to represent Mississippi State at SEC Media Days, and with that, we'll open it up.
Q. Jeff, I think I read this right, no returning starters on offense, only two on defense. I know it's a new staff, but how daunting is that? I saw this on social media so it must be true, that Nick Saban said he tried to hire you at Alabama when he was at OU. Could you take us through that?
JEFF LEBBY: Yeah, part 1 of the question, I've talked about it a lot today already, but the climate of college football, where we're at, the portal cycle that ended in December was a huge part for us having a chance to have success year one. We're talking about our starting quarterback, three of the five starting O-linemen, two receivers, starting running back, and on the defensive side we'll have three starters from the portal, as well.
Being able to get off the ground was a huge part of it. That's not who we want to be. We're going to create edge, and we're going to be able to sustain as a program because we've got great proximity to players. We're going to be a developmental program. We've got great junior colleges inside our state which is advantage us. So those are things, as we move forward, it will look a little bit different, but for year one, we've got guys that will go out there week one that have played a lot of ball, just not a lot of ball at Davis Wade.
Part 2, Coach Saban, just an honor to have conversations with him as we went through some things. Could not be more thankful for opportunity, and at the time it was something where I felt like needed to be exactly where my feet were, and he did pretty good. He did pretty good.
Q. John Lewis is going to be filling a big void at linebacker with Bookie Watson and Jett Johnson gone. I know you weren't there with those guys, but he's got a lot on his shoulders this year. How confident are you he can step up as a leader on and off the field for this program?
JEFF LEBBY: Yeah, J-Lew has done that, that's why he's here today representing us. A guy that he's going to play alongside with -- there's multiple guys inside that room that are going to give us a chance to create depth, but a guy that, again, comes to us from another SEC school, Stone Blanton, has played at a really high level, has played inside this league, knows what it's supposed to look like. He's another guy, along with some others, that will help us fill that void.
Q. How did your time under Brent Venables the last two years help you prepare for this job, both under Brent but also just your time at Oklahoma? Secondly, what can people expect from Jackson Arnold?
JEFF LEBBY: Yeah, getting an opportunity to work for Coach V the last two years, he created an opportunity for me to go back to my alma mater and be able to get that thing off the ground with him. A great experience for me is being able to see him do it from year one to year two and being this great coordinator who had an incredible amount of success and being able to get into that head coaching chair and find ways to keep getting better.
It was all about what's best for the program, it's all about what's best for the people inside our room, as consistent of a leader and a man as there is, I believe that, in all of college football. Indebted to him forever for giving me that experience.
Part 2 to the question, obviously Jackson, I think everybody understands who knows that scenario and relationship knows how I feel about him and him having the ability to continue great quarterback play at that university.