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What to expect of Mississippi State football's wide receivers in year one with Jeff Lebby?

ByEthan Lee|
Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is pictured before a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the TCU Horned Frogs at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. Oklahoma won 69-45.
Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is pictured before a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the TCU Horned Frogs at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. Oklahoma won 69-45. | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY
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Jeff Lebby is heading into his first season as the head coach in Starkville. And one thing that Mississippi State football fans really want to see is the emergence of a fun and electrifying passing attack. 

The Air Raid is great, though it didn’t quite click the way some were hoping for (a lot of that has to do with execution from personnel, not system issues, but still) and then last year’s offenses was a muddied mess of all sorts of dysfunction (a lot of that likely has to do with competing and conflicting visions for what the offense should be within the coaching staff, but still).

So, Lebby, who built his initial offense alongside Art Briles at Baylor and then refined things a bit here and there at various stops along his coaching journey post Baylor, will now lead the Mississippi State Bulldogs. And he’s got a chance to really implement a fun passing attack.

I’ve referenced Baylor’s offense in 2012 on a few different occasions in a few different channels, and I suspect you’ll see me reference it at times this year. 

It’ll be different from what MSU fans are used to seeing and it could really benefit the group of wide receivers that the Bulldogs have brought together. But what can MSU fans expect from the Bulldogs' wide receivers this year?

How did MSU’s wide receivers perform last year?

The first thing we need to do is establish a baseline. Before we can even talk about expectations for production for the Mississippi State football team, let’s understand where the Bulldogs were a season ago and how well the wide receivers performed last year.

Let’s take a look at the top producing receivers from MSU last year:

  • Lideatrick Griffin (WR) - 12 games, 50 receptions, 658 yards, 13.16 avg, 4 TD, 54.83 ypg
  • Zavion Thomas (WR) - 11 games, 40 receptions, 503 yards, 12.58 avg, 1 TD, 45.73 ypg
  • Justin Robinson (WR) - 10 games, 21 receptions, 257 yards, 12.24 avg, 0 TD, 25.70 ypg
  • Freddie Roberson (WR) - 11 games, 11 receptions, 149 yards, 13.55 avg, 1 TD, 13.55 ypg
  • Creed Whittemore (WR) - 12 games, 11 receptions, 102 yards, 9.27 avg, 2 TD, 8.50 ypg

That’s just not great.

Some of that has to do with the way the Mississippi State Bulldogs lacked a consistent and coherent vision for what the offense should be (I don’t blame Kevin Barbay, but rather the entirety of the coaching staff for lacking a clear vision on this whole deal given that I’m not totally convinced Barbay had a chance to even fully run his offense).

Here’s the entirety of production from MSU’s wide receiver corps:

It’s not pretty! 

Mississippi State’s passing attack was lacking last season and the MSU Bulldogs desperately need to find a way to be more dangerous here. 

Hopefully, that’s where Lebby’s offense can come in. His variety of the veer and shoot seems to be pretty pass happy. And as we saw in the spring game, that can lead to plenty of exciting moments for MSU football fans.

But before we can continue to get into expectations. Let’s continue to set a foundation for all of this. How has Lebby’s offense benefitted wide receivers elsewhere?

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