Mississippi State football: Jeff Lebby reportedly set to add SEC assistant to staff
By Ethan Lee
As the Mississippi State football staff continues to get established by Jeff Lebby, it looks like the Bulldogs are poaching an assistant from another SEC school.
Jeff Lebby has been pretty busy lately. The new head coach for the Mississippi State football team is working on recruiting and building a coaching staff and that’s a lot to do. This is his first time as a head coach and so he’s having to learn on the fly.
As Lebby builds his coaching staff, it looks like he’s carefully picking individuals who are familiar with his offensive system and the way he wants to design his offense to run.
There haven’t been many big names hired, but the additions of Jon Cooper and Matt Holecek show that, as it comes to building a coaching staff for his offense, Lebby is serious about finding the right sorts of fits.
So, that makes the reportedly expected addition of Cody Kennedy interesting. As Football Scoop reports, Kennedy is apparently set to join Lebby in Starkville.
And that’d be a good move for everyone involved.
Mississippi State football coaching staff: Jeff Lebby reportedly set to add Cody Kennedy to MSU staff
While Lebby gets a new era started in Starkville, things in Fayetteville have been a little tense in recent months. Sam Pittman is facing a notable hot seat situation and the Razorbacks struggled throughout the year.
And with the addition of Bobby Petrino, it sounds like Arkansas is continuing to depart from the veer-and-shoot system that Kendal Briles installed from 2020 to 2022.
Lebby’s offense is obviously similar in many ways to the system that Briles runs and so, bringing in people who understand that system and how to make it work at a high level is important. Thus, Cody Kennedy.
Kennedy spent two years working with Briles at Arkansas and he knows that offense pretty well. He also has coached all throughout the South, spending time in the states of Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
Oh, and Kennedy is from Virginia and played college football in Louisiana. He’s well traveled when it comes to the region and could conceivably help recruit players to Starkville.