Mississippi State football hiring Jeff Lebby will be test of Art Briles offense | Toppmeyer

From Baylor to Tennessee to Ole Miss and Group of Five schools in between, the Art Briles offense works with a blur of tempo and spacing and points.

The offense helps programs punch above their weight.

That system will be put to the ultimate test after Mississippi State’s hire of Jeff Lebby.

Lebby, you probably know, is Briles’ son-in-law. For years, Lebby worked on Briles’ Baylor staffs, before he became the offensive coordinator for other offensive-minded coaches like Josh Heupel and Lane Kiffin and finally at Oklahoma.

Star quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Matt Corral thrived with Lebby, 39, as their coordinator.

Briles became a college football pariah because he abdicated his leadership responsibilities and failed to respond appropriately while his program engaged in one of the ugliest, most hurtful scandals in college sports history.

Briles’ effectiveness as a technician of a revolutionary warp-speed spread offense carries forward in coaches of this generation, like Lebby.

Schools like Mississippi State and Ole Miss compete in the rugged SEC while being unable to match the recruiting hauls brought in annually by juggernauts like Alabama, Georgia and LSU.

Kiffin combined his spread-tempo offense with an annual crop of impressive transfers to elevate Ole Miss to 28 victories the past three seasons, including two Egg Bowl triumphs. The Rebels have ranked in the top 30 nationally in scoring in each of the past four seasons.

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Tennessee combined the Briles system with quarterback Hendon Hooker’s transcendent performance last season to win 11 games and lead the nation in scoring.

Lebby will try to make this offense function just as successfully at MSU, while not being privy to the talent level of either a Tennessee and an Ole Miss.

Lane Kiffin zags at Ole Miss, so Mississippi State zags with Jeff Lebby

Instead of zigging to Kiffin’s zag, State will be zagging along in the Rebels’ footsteps, while trying to convince recruits that “Swag is State.”

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The 247Sports Composite tracks signing classes back 15 years. During that time, MSU never signed a class that ranked higher than No. 8 within the SEC.

The athletic department aspires to be a contender for the 12-team College Football Playoff, but it does not enjoy top-12 revenues. More like top 40.

The brilliant combination of Dan Mullen and Dak Prescott made State believe in oversized possibilities. Repeating the success Mullen and Prescott supplied isn't impossible, but it takes the perfect combination of coach, scheme, quarterback, and a staff with a knack for turning three-star prospects into four-star talent.

A head coach’s responsibilities are greater than ever, and State will hoe that row with a first-time coach who plans to assume his new CEO duties while still calling plays. That’s a juggling act few pull off successfully nowadays.

Coaching MSU is a good job, because it’s an SEC job, but it’s a tough job – tougher than most in this conference – and it will become tougher after Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC in 2024.

MSU embodies a hard-hat culture while clangin’ those cowbells, but they quickly moved on from a coach, Zach Arnett, who epitomized that personality.

Hiring Jeff Lebby is an embrace of something different for MSU football

Arnett never got much chance. First-year athletic director Zac Selmon sought his own man, and it was striking to see MSU introduce Lebby amid music fit for a rave, while he, Selmon and President Mark Keenum walked through smoke machines, dressed to impress.

Mike Leach probably would have bristled at the sight of it all. Certainly, he’d have been underdressed for the night. Leach remains a treasure at MSU, but Swag State is a hard right turn away from the pirate’s life – and from Arnett.

Arnett’s property houses chickens and horses. Culturally, he fit Starkville. That only matters if you win.

This pivot is unsurprising. When a school replaces a fired coach, the newcomer is often opposite in style from the predecessor.

Other than a Mullen return – an outcome I always found unlikely for both school and coach – I pegged Liberty’s Jamey Chadwell a smart target for MSU.

Chadwell’s ability to develop talent and pair it with a tricky-to-defend scheme has made him a persistent winner in the Group of Five, and I think he’d have proven a handful for SEC opponents. Maybe, Chadwell will wind up in this conference someday, but he seems content for the moment at Liberty.

A first-time coach like Lebby presents as more of a risk, but he’ll bring knowledge of a scheme that’s been a great equalizer for many a program. And State needs an equalizer.

"We’ll be able to score," Lebby said at his introduction.

That's usually true of the Briles offense, although this system hasn't been put to the challenge it will face in a rookie coach deploying it from MSU.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Mississippi State football hiring Jeff Lebby will test Art Briles offense