WATCH: Mississippi State football – Jeff Lebby introductory press conference

Mississippi State football welcomed its newest head coach with a friendly press conference Monday evening. You can watch it here:

Monday evening, the Mississippi State football program welcomed Jeff Lebby, the newest head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs to town with an inviting and friendly press conference with members of the local media based in Starkville (and surrounding areas) who cover the Bulldogs for MSU.

During the press conference, the 36th head coach in Mississippi State history was introduced to the media corps and a fanbase whose favorite football team has endured substantial turbulence in recent years.

Just a little over a year ago, Mike Leach, who was thought to be the longtime leader of the Bulldogs, passed away as his third season in Starkville was wrapping up. Zach Arnett, Leach’s defensive coordinator, took over.

But things didn’t work with Arnett and his brief stint as head coach came to a close. Now, MSU is turning to Jeff Lebby in hopes of stabilizing things in Starkville.

The Bulldogs are going to face some challenges as their first time head coach takes over, but Lebby seems enthusiastic about the opportunity to lead the Bulldogs.

“I’m a big fan of the cowbell, make no mistake about that,” Lebby stated. “I’m a big fan of Mississippi State.”

Watch Mississippi State football introduce Jeff Lebby during press conference

When it comes to expectations and definitions of success, Lebby made it clear that he’s not focused on external expectations. Instead, he’s dictating that the expectations he has for himself have to do with improving based off where the program is internally.

“I don’t know if I should be talking about what the expectations should be outside the building,” Lebby said.

So, he’s not looking to listen to external voices when it comes to that.

“I know what the expectations are going to be for myself and the players in the locker room and that’s to be as good as we can possibly as fast as we can possibly be. We are truly going to be in a race against ourselves to see how good we can get before we walk out into that stadium on a Saturday afternoon and what that looks like, you know,” Lebby said.

For more on what Lebby said, view the full friendly press conference right here:

Shoutout to the MSU athletics department for sharing the press conference on X (Twitter?).

It will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs develop and grow over the next few months. Lebby is working to move through recruiting and roster building. He’s got some interesting work to do ahead of him with regards to that.

MSU’s roster is losing a lot in terms of key members of the Bulldogs’ defense and Will Rogers just entered the transfer portal. The Bulldogs’ offense also isn’t really currently configured to operate what Lebby has run historically.

How he adjusts the roster these next few months, and what expectations are placed on him, will be interesting to watch.