Mississippi State football: Jeff Lebby praises Chad Bumphis

Jeff Lebby keeps on building his first coaching staff and Mississippi State football legend Chad Bumphis is sticking around Starkville.

Plenty of Mississippi State football fans are more than excited to know that Chad Bumphis will be sticking around the Miss. State football program for the foreseeable future. Bumphis, a Mississippi State football legend, was retained by Lebby to continue coaching wide receivers in Starkville.

Bumphis was one of a handful of staff members retained by Lebby from the previous staff to this new era of Mississippi State football. He was also the only on the field coach on the offensive side of things to be carried over from the Zach Arnett era into the future of the MSU Bulldogs.

And Lebby had plenty of praise for his first wide receivers coach while in Starkville. Following the hire of Bumphis, Lebby highlighted the wide receivers’ coach’s familiarity with Mississippi State, the SEC, and recruiting in the Magnolia State.

Mississippi State football: Jeff Lebby issues statement on retaining Chad Bumphis

In his statement on Bumphis’ hire, Lebby said the following:

“We’re fired up for coach [Bumphis] to be staying at Mississippi State. He has established himself as a dynamic recruiter in this conference, especially in our great state of Mississippi. the relationships he’s built and maintained with Bulldogs of the past, present, and future are incredibly valuable to our program. I’m excited to have his knowledge of the game, recruiting acumen, and familiarity with the program as both a coach and record-setting All-SEC wide receiver.”

While Lebby is familiar with the state of Mississippi (and recruiting in Mississippi) from his time with the Ole Miss Rebels, it’s fair to say that recruiting to Starkville and coaching at Mississippi State are considerably different things.

Bumphis is the perfect sort of coach to have on staff to do that given that he’s a MSU great and that he’s from the state of Mississippi.

Plus, it also helps the coaching staff connect with the institution and the fanbase in a bit of a more comprehensive manner. While Lebby brings a lot of new concepts to Starkville as he tries to overhaul the program and bring it into the future with a new offense, he still has to understand what this fanbase is like and how they like to cling to certain things.

The new era can’t totally abandon everything attached to the institution’s legacy (though it absolutely should move away from exclusively “blue collar branding”).