Mussatto's Minutes: Jeff Lebby is latest OU offensive coordinator to get head coaching gig

Being an offensive coordinator at OU is a tried-and-true path in becoming a head coach.

Jeff Lebby became the latest to follow that career arc. The Sooner offensive coordinator of the last two seasons was hired Sunday as Mississippi State’s new head coach.

In this week’s edition of Mussatto’s Minutes, we’ll look at Big 12 title game history, but let’s start with OU’s lineage of offensive coordinators who went on to become head coaches. Note that some of them were head coaches on both sides of their OU tenure.

Barry Switzer is a good name to start with. Switzer, of course, was OU’s offensive coordinator before he led the Sooners to three national championships in his 16 seasons as head coach.

From Galen Hall to Jeff Lebby, OU has had 17 offensive coordinators since Switzer became OU’s head coach in 1973. All but two of them (Joe Dickinson and Dick Winder) in that 50-year stretch held a head coaching job after they worked as OU’s offensive coordinator.

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Jeff Lebby (2022-23): Lebby, who played at OU, was the offensive coordinator at UCF and Ole Miss before returning to Norman in that same role. Now he’s the head man in Starkville at age 39.

Lincoln Riley (2015-16): Riley acted as the offensive coordinator during his head coaching tenure. Riley was OU’s first offensive coordinator since Switzer to become OU’s head coach.

Josh Heupel (2011-14): The former Sooner national champion quarterback has been the head coach at UCF and Tennessee since being fired from OU.

Jay Norvell (2011-14): Norvell, the co-offensive coordinator with Heupel, spent five seasons as Nevada’s head coach. He’s in his second season at Colorado State.

Kevin Wilson (2002-10): Currently the head coach at Tulsa, Wilson spent six seasons as Indiana’s head coach.

Kevin Sumlin (2006-07): Sumlin spent 13 years as a head coach from 2008-20. Four years at Houston, six at Texas A&M and three at Arizona.

Chuck Long (2002-05): Long left OU for the San Diego State head coaching job. He coached the Aztecs for three seasons.

Mark Mangino (1999-01): Mangino went 50-48 at Kansas from 2002-09. Mangino is second on Kansas’ all-time wins list behind A.R. Kennedy, who won 52 games from 1904-10.

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Mike Leach (1999): Texas Tech wisely hired Leach after Leach’s one season as OU’s offensive coordinator. Leach was a mainstay in Lubbock and at Washington State. He coached Mississippi State for three years before he passed.

Gary Nord (1995): Nord, a Howard Schnellenberger disciple, only spent one season at OU. Nord was UTEP’s head coach from 2000-03.

Watson Brown (1993-94): Brown had already been a head coach at Austin Peay, Cincinnati, Rice and Vanderbilt when he took the OU offensive coordinator job, but after two seasons at OU he got another head coaching gig at UAB.

Larry Coker (1990-92): Coker, an Oklahoma native, was the offensive coordinator at Tulsa, OSU and OU. Coker led Miami to a national championship in his first season as head coach (2001). He later spent five seasons as UTSA’s head coach.

Jim Donnan (1985-89): Donnan went 64-21 at Marshall from 1990-95. He went from Marshall to Georgia, where Donnan was fired after five seasons despite going 40-19.

Mack Brown (1984): Brown had already been a head coach, but only for a season. He was Appalachian State’s head coach in 1983, worked as OU’s offensive coordinator in 1984 and then took the Tulane head coaching job in 1985. Brown, who won a few ballgames at Texas, is in his second stint as North Carolina’s head coach.

Galen Hall (1973-83): The former Switzer offensive coordinator took the same job at Florida. Hall was named interim head coach in his first season at Florida following the firing of Charlie Pell. Hall went 40-18-1 in his six seasons in Gainesville.

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National Game of the Week

Washington (12-0, 9-0 Pac-12) vs. Oregon (11-1, 8-1 Pac-12), 7 p.m. Friday, ABC: Oregon is favored by 9.5 points in the rematch. Washington beat Oregon, but the widely held assumption is that the Ducks are better. We’ll find out Friday night in Las Vegas.

Mid-major mention: Tulane (11-1, 8-0 American) vs. SMU (10-2, 8-0 American), 3 p.m. Saturday, ABC: OU’s win against the Mustangs has aged well. SMU will try to spoil a potential New Year’s Six bowl bid for Tulane.

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Big 12 Championship history

OSU and Texas will play Saturday in what will be the 22nd Big 12 Championship Game.

From 1996-2010, the game pitted the north division champ against the south division champ. There was no championship game between 2011-16, and since 2017 the game has been contested by the top-two teams in a conference that no longer has divisions.

Oklahoma State will be making its second title game appearance, both of which have come in the last three seasons. For Texas, it’ll be their seventh appearance.

Here’s a list of Big 12 teams with the most conference championship game appearances, including this season:

1. Oklahoma: 12. The SEC-bound Sooners dominated the league, going 11-1 in Big 12 Championship Games. Their only loss was to Kansas State in 2003.

2. Texas: 7. Texas last won the Big 12 Championship Game in 2009. The Longhorns are 3-3 in the title game.

3. Nebraska: 6. Nebraska made back-to-back appearances in 2009 and 2010 before leaving the Big 12 for the Big Ten. The Cornhuskers went 2-4 in the game.

T4. Kansas State: 4. Two wins and two losses for the Wildcats. Kansas State’s 2022 championship was the Wildcats’ first since 2003.

T4. Colorado: 4. The Buffs’ only Big 12 title was in 2001. Colorado lost the championship game in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

T6. Baylor: 2. Baylor lost to OU in 2019 and beat OSU in 2021.

T6. Oklahoma State: 2. The Cowboys fell one yard short against the Bears.

T6. TCU: 2. TCU is 0-2 in Big 12 title games, but the Frogs still made the College Football Playoff last season despite losing to Kansas State in Arlington.

T6. Texas A&M: 2. The Aggies earned a split in their only two appearances (1997, 1998).

T6. Missouri: 2. The Tigers lost the title game in back-to-back years in 2007 and 2008.

11. Iowa State: 1. The Cyclones are the only team that has played in exactly one Big 12 Championship Game. It was in 2020, when Iowa State lost to OU.

Never appeared: BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas, Texas Tech, West Virginia

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Pick Six

Every week I make a list of six college football somethings.

Today, a look at six teams that disappointed me the most.

1. Clemson (8-4, 4-4 ACC): I picked the Tigers to make the College Football Playoff. Boy was I wrong. Credit the Tigers for ending the year on a four-game winning streak, though.

2. USC (7-5, 4-4 Pac-12): Another bad College Football Playoff pick of mine. The Trojans were disastrous on defense. Caleb Williams could only carry them so far.

3. Wisconsin (7-5, 5-4 Big Ten): I was bullish on the Badgers after they hired Luke Fickell. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the hire, but Wisconsin wasn’t as good as I thought they’d be. The Badgers lost to Indiana and Northwestern in back-to-back weeks.

4. North Carolina (8-4, 4-4 ACC): Mack Brown’s squad started 6-0 and finished 2-4. That’s disappointing considering the talent at quarterback with Drake Maye.

5. Baylor (3-9, 2-7 Big 12): Baylor’s only Big 12 wins came against Cincinnati and UCF. Dave Aranda’s job is apparently safe. For now.

6. Arkansas (4-8, 1-7 SEC): Arkansas wasn’t expected to contend for the SEC, but this was bad. The Razorbacks won zero SEC games in Fayetteville.

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: Jeff Lebby is Oklahoma Sooners' latest OC to get head coaching gig