Tennessee football hosts Mississippi State at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night in the first meeting between the two teams since 2019.
First-year Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby met with the local media on Monday as he still searches for his first conference win as the Bulldogs’ head coach. Lebby discussed coaching under Josh Heupel at UCF, what he’s seen from a daunting Tennessee’s defense and more more. Here’s everything Lebby said.
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On his relationship with Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel
“A guy that I have more respect for than maybe anybody in the profession. A great friend and somebody that has been a great mentor to me. I had the opportunity to work for him and it was an incredible experience. A guy that’s incredibly consistent and you look at what he’s done, the amount of success he’s had, the culture he’s created at an incredible place. A ton of respect for who he is as a person, as a father, as a husband and then obviously, as a football coach, as well.”
On what he can take from Heupel’s success at Tennessee to his rebuild at Mississippi State
“Seeing a great deal of consistency and him being exactly who he is supposed to be as a leader. Those players inside the building and his staff, they know what to expect every single day. Results won’t dictate who he is as a person and how he interacts. There’s a lot of that, that you hear me talking about non-stop every single day as we’re fighting to build this.”
On past road games preparing them for the environment at Tennessee
“The challenge this Saturday is a challenge of its own. I do think living some of the experiences we’ve lived throughout the season helps us understand what it’s going to be like. Again for us, so many young guys playing, especially on the offensive side of the ball. But our guys understanding the crowd noise and the environment, that part of it and creating strain and stress, we’ve done a better job. I thought we did better at Georgia than we did the week before at Austin. We need to be able to carry that growth over because again, the setting, the environment, night game, it will be an electric atmosphere. We’ve got to do a great job of communicating and finding ways to take that out of the game.”
On Tennessee’s defense
“A dominant defensive line. They’re able to roll seven or eight guys and there’s not a drop-off. To me that is what sticks out in a big way and they’ve owned the line of scrimmage in every single game they’ve played. They play incredible run defense. It’s a group that’s really deep and also really old. There’s juniors and seniors in their front and they play really well.”
On him being a graduate assistant with Heupel at Oklahoma
“That’s where it all started. Obviously, I was a student assistant and Heupel was a graduate assistant. We were grunting it up in a tiny little office, spending a lot of hours together breaking down opponents and finding ways to create shortcuts for the staff and the players. For me at a really young age and after Heupel had had such an unbelievable career playing there, for me there was great growth inside. Being 19 and 20 years old and go at it every single day with him was great. That was the start of it and obviously, coached against each other for a long time with both of us being in the Big 12. Great familiarity and he’s done an unbelievable job.”
On his thoughts on the SEC fining teams for faking injuries
“Of course, I’m all in favor. Even this year, it’s come up a ton as we’ve been in the middle of some games. I love that is where it’s going.”
On Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson
“This guy has been incredible running through trash, winning 1 on 1s. Arm tackles don’t tackle him and that is what stands out on tape. You have to get multiple people to the football. You got to get multiple people to get him on the ground. That will be a huge part of it come Saturday night.”
