SEC Media Days: Lebby has the summer birds singing

• The new Miss. State Head Coach believes Portal Magic can happen for the Bulldogs.

Hope is what makes the birds sing for college football fans in mid-summer.

Almost every team has it.

It’s a terrible feeling for those don’t believe they do. An entire off-season has been devoted to trying to right the wrongs of the previous season, to get better, whatever that means for a given team’s rung on the ladder.

There were a lot of rungs ahead of Mississippi State at the end of last season, but the Bulldogs have hope.

They’re placing that hope in a career assistant who’s never been a head coach. Nothing is a sure thing, but the track record says Jeff Lebby is a good reason for hope.

When making changes at the top spot college administrators typically go after an expert in the area in which they feel they were least proficient.

Surprisingly, for a Bulldogs’ team just one year removed from Mike Leach as their head coach that was offense.

There was such a drastic decline on that side under Zach Arnett, the Bulldogs’ former defensive coordinator, that it was like the Mike Leach Era a Mississippi State never happened. The Bulldogs were No. 105 nationally in scoring, No. 107 in passing efficiency and No. 101 in total offense.

Can Bulldogs make Portal Magic?

But in the Transfer Portal age magic can happen in a flash, and the Bulldogs may have the secret sauce to make that happen with two key Big 12 ingredients: Lebby’s success at Oklahoma and Baylor transfer quarterback Blake Shapen.

In the new age experienced players from recognizable schools create an expectation of instant success.

That wasn’t exactly true for Jaxson Dart, now a Heisman contender, in his first season at Ole Miss in 2022 after a year at Southern Cal. Dart the sophomore had his moments.

Whether Shapen produces in Lebby’s offense the way Dillon Gabriel did last season remains to be seen. With Gabriel at the wheel the Sooners were No. 4 nationally in scoring at 41.7 points per game, No. 6 in passing at 324.8 yards a game.

When Lebby, Lane Kiffin’s first offensive coordinator at Ole Miss, took the MSU job, Gabriel, another Heisman hopeful, moved to Oregon, his third school.

Shapen had a career 63.7 passing percentage with 36 passing touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 27 games at Baylor, most of them starts.

He looks to be an effective short-yardage runner and showed good understanding of Lebby’s concepts in the spring.

“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,” Lebby said Wednesday in his first appearance at SEC Media Days.

Shapen, a Shreveport, Louisiana native, stands 6-foot-1. There are two points that could help him find consistency quicker in Starkville than Dart did in Oxford.

Two points for quick success

First, is his experience. Twenty-seven games means a lot of college football experience at a high level.

The second point is more important, and Lebby just hit on this. He got his guy. As he embarks on his first head coaching job Shapen is who he wanted, not who he was handed.

Kevin Barbay, Arnett’s offensive coordinator hire, was handed a quarterback last season, a very good one in Will Rogers.

Arnett and Barbay made the decision to implement Barbay’s very successful Appalachian State offense instead of leaning hard into the Leach system which was the only style Rogers had known at the college level.

Rogers looked uncomfortable early, but the bigger problem was what the offense looked when an injured shoulder kept him on the sidelines. (See offensive futility above.)

Lebby says Shapen exhibits the buzz words the coach trotted out for writers in Dallas: “Toughness, physicality, being able to go inspire your teammates to go play better every single day. That’s what Blake has done.”

Lebby isn’t expecting a big learning curve behind center when the games begin.

“He’s put us in a position to get off the ground the way we need to. Having him Year One has been huge,” Lebby said.

If the chemistry between Shapen and his mates and Shapen and his coaches is what Lebby appears to believe that offensive futility may indeed become just a fuzzy memory rather quickly.

Quarterback, though, is not the only position Lebby has to fix.

He wasn’t handed a starter there, but he wasn’t handed a starter at 10 other positions on offense, and there are only two returning starters on defense.

Lebby was very clear Wednesday. He believes the secret sauce will carry the day, and that State fans, wounded and weary from a 1-7 SEC mark with four losses by at least three touchdowns, one a 51-10 stinker at Texas A&M that cut short Arnett’s only season as coach, will see something more in 2024.

Keep a roster handy, State fans

Fans, get your popcorn, as Lebby’s former boss once famously said, but in Starkville, get a game program too.

Lebby believes the Transfer Portal is about to pay off for his team in a big way.

“It’s the climate of college football, where we’re at. 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 as well,” Lebby said.