Mussatto: After brief OU football skid, Jeff Lebby redeemed himself. At least for a week.

NORMAN — The criticisms of OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby apparently leaked past state lines. They echoed all the way from Campus Corner to the hills of West Virginia. Heck, word of Lebby’s plummeting popularity even reached Mountaineers coach Neal Brown.

After OU steamrolled his West Virginia squad 59-20 on Saturday, Brown made an impromptu mention of the Lebby discourse.

“I know they’re giving him a hard time,” Brown said. “He’s a hell of an offensive coach.”

It sure looked that way Saturday.

OU scored its most points in a Big 12 game since hanging 62 on Kansas in 2020. OU’s 644 yards was a season high, and it came against a West Virginia defense that hadn’t allowed more than 500 yards in any game. The Sooners scored touchdowns on four of their first five drives, and on the other, OU kicked a field goal.

Sooner quarterback Dillon Gabriel scored his jersey number in touchdowns. He wears No. 8, by the way. His eight touchdowns, five passing and three rushing, set a school record. OU averaged more than eight yards per play.

More: OU football grades vs. West Virginia: Drake Stoops, 'Unity' uniforms shine for Sooners

“We were clean, we were efficient, we took care of the football and we didn’t have a lot of penalties,” Lebby said.

Characteristics the Sooners lacked in back-to-back losses at Kansas and OSU, which made Lebby's persona non grata in Norman.

Saturday was a redemption, of sorts.

“He’s one of the best (offensive coordinators) in the whole freakin’ country, and it shows tonight,” said receiver Drake Stoops, who caught three touchdowns and had a career-high 164 receiving yards.

Lebby said he didn’t hear any of the negative noise, but that’s hard to believe when, you know, Neal Brown heard it. It’s also hard to believe that Lebby didn’t feel the slightest bit of vindication after his Sooner offense went supernova against the Mountaineers.

It would certainly be justified if he did.

“That noise has no effect on my day-to-day,” Lebby said. “It takes none of my focus, my energy, my joy …”

Sounds like he’s following his boss’s orders.

“I told him not to listen to y’all,” said head coach Brent Venables, wearing a big grin. “Hopefully he wasn’t on the message boards or the newspapers. Still got newspapers?”

Added Venables: “Jeff played here and he loves this university, cares about the product that he puts out there. The staff, I think they’ve done a really nice job. For whatever reason, sometimes you gotta really go through it to figure some things out.”

More: Dillon Gabriel joins NCAA career passing yards top 10 as OU football beats West Virginia

Brown, a former offensive coordinator who still calls plays as West Virginia’s head coach, knows that all too well.

“You do this long enough, you’re gonna like to have some calls back,” Brown said.

As for dealing with the blowback?

“My mantra is, I don’t listen to any criticism from anybody I wouldn’t take advice from,” Brown said. “I doubt the people criticizing (Lebby) have the credentials he has.

Brown said he doesn’t know Lebby personally, “but my professional opinion is he’s a really good offensive football coach,” Brown said. “He exposed some matchups tonight and did a good job mixing it up. I think he’s giving them chances.”

Lebby isn’t beyond criticism.

I thought he did a poor job handling the situation earlier this season when his father-in-law, Art Briles, was on the field after the SMU game. That was a more egregious lapse in judgment than any one of Lebby’s play calls.

Not that all of Lebby’s calls have been perfect. Sometimes it looks like Lebby prefers going horizontal more so than vertical. He doesn’t always dial up the so-called knockout punch. OU’s run game has been unreliable for much of the season.

Then again, I don’t know anything about running an offense or calling plays under pressure. Few of us do. But most of us don’t get paid to do our jobs as much as Lebby does to do his. He’s a public figure whose every move is going to be dissected.

More: OU football vs. West Virginia: 5 takeaways as Dillon Gabriel, Sooners rout Mountaineers

Still, I asked him if he ever wishes if those of us could see what the job is really like from his viewpoint. After all, it's hard to argue with his production. Lebby has coached the Sooners up into a top-10 offense both by yards and points per game.

He didn’t bite.

“I’m pretty thankful to be doing what I’m doing,” Lebby said. “I think perspective is very real. I feel like I’ve got a good one from the standpoint of loving what I do every single day, getting to chase it with my guys every single day, and this staff.

“All I’m trying to do is find ways to be plus one at the end of the day, put our guys in positions of success and focus on that.”

Lebby helped the Sooners be plus a bunch Saturday.

Drop the pitchforks.

At least until next week.

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby redeemed himself vs. WVU