New MSU Coach Can Learn Some Things from Rival Coach

Ole Miss Lane Kiffin talked about the state of college football and the different variables required to build a successful program

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin looks up at the scoreboard during a time out in second half of the Egg Bowl at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss. / Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger / USA

DALLAS – Football coaches are always learning and trying to find the missing variables in their equation to success. Each equation is different for each coach and program, but there are similarities and coaches learn from one another about ways to build a program.

Mississippi State’s first-year coach Jeff Lebby is just starting to build his first program and with every SEC coach speaking over the course of the four-day SEC Media Days in Dallas, there’s plenty of learning opportunities.

Those opportunities even include the Bulldogs’ biggest rival’s coach, Lane Kiffin. Ole Miss and Mississippi State have plenty of differences, but one similarity they both was put forward by Rebels’ quarterback Jaxon Dart when he said, “Ole Miss has been an up and down program in its history.”

Replace “Ole Miss” with “Mississippi State” and the sentence would remain true. But most of their histories took place in a difference college football landscape and while Bulldog fans may not like this, Kiffin has built a successful program in this new landscape.

So, it’s not impossible task Lebby is facing in Starkville. It won’t be easy, but there is something a blueprint to be learned at the school up north. And Dart, who crossed paths with Lebby at Oklahoma when Dart was deciding between the Rebels and Sooners, had positive things to say about Lebby.

“He’s going to do a great job,” Dart said. “He’s a great person and brings in high quality people.”

Kiffin spoke about the new college football world and the challenges he and other coaches face.

Several times during his press conference, Kiffin referred to the transfer portal as free agency saying, “now that we’re like the NFL when it comes to free agency and all this.” That’s exactly what recruiting and the transfer portal has basically become, for better or worse. The situation won’t change overnight, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said as much in his opening remarks Monday, and coaches have to live in and be successful in this new world.

Kiffin has found success in the new college football world, albeit not the level of success he or the Ole Miss fan base hoped for. And it would be smart for new coaches to listen what he says about navigating free agency and balancing that with high school recruiting and then putting all the pieces in place to build a cohesive team.

“They got to come together. Look in professional sports, there are plenty of teams that were supposed to be good or added these great free agents and don't play well together. This is the ultimate team sport,” Kiffin said. “We’ve done what is considered out there ‘well’ in the portal for a number of years now. Two years ago we were 8-1 playing coach [Nick] Saban and had the ball going down to score at home, but we didn’t. I think we lost the last four or five games after. Then last year we go 11-2 with a lot of portal-heavy players.

“I think there is so much of that bonding and them coming together or else everybody would say just go get a top free agency like you see in the NBA. But that doesn't always work.”

The lesson here being you can’t just go out and sign or recruit the best players. You have to find the best players for your team. Over time, coaches figure out what’s best for their team and can identify specific player profiles when looking at the transfer portal or on the high school recruiting trail. The Bulldogs aren’t at that point, but they could be very soon.

It took Kiffin three years to build a program that is considered a dark horse candidate to win the SEC championship. Maybe it takes Lebby four or five, but a blueprint exists and his instate rival gave him a preview of it.