Report: Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby Could Become a Candidate if Alabama Job Opens

ESPN's Pete Thamel told Paul Finebaum on Wednesday that if Nick Saban needs an offensive coordinator, one potential candidate currently resides in Norman.

Could Jeff Lebby be Bama bound?

According to ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel, it’s a possibility.

In his appearance Wednesday on the Paul Finebaum Show, Thamel was asked what Nick Saban could be looking for next if, as expected, Bill O’Brien does not return as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator.

Thamel immediately turned his thoughts to Norman and Brent Venables' staff.

“I would think that Nick Saban saw the fits that Tennessee and Josh Heupel gave him this year,” Thamel said, “and offensively, I think they’ll probably trend a little bit and maybe overcorrect a little bit more that way as they go.

“Now, I’m not saying they’re gonna turn into the Baylor offense from the mid-2000s. But one name I’ve heard is (Jeff Lebby), the Oklahoma offensive coordinator. He’s obviously had success in the SEC West footprint (in 2020-21 at Ole Miss). He’s obviously learned from Lane Kiffin and branched out to Oklahoma last year — to some mixed results in a rebuilding year.

“But I do think that if the option schematically is to go faster or slower, my expectation is Alabama’s gonna end up going faster.”

Thamel didn't identify any other candidates for the potential Bama opening.

Dillon Gabriel and Jeff Lebby :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

Lebby, a former Baylor assistant, implemented a heavy flavor of Art Briles’ offense — he’s Briles’ son-in-law — when he worked with Heupel at Central Florida in 2018-19 (their quarterback in '19 was current OU starter Dillon Gabriel). He did the same under Kiffin for two years in Oxford, and this past season brought many of those same concepts to Norman.

Although the Sooners went 6-7 this season, Lebby’s offense posted solid numbers: 474 yards per game (13th in the nation), 219.4 rushing yards per game (10th), 254.6 passing (42nd) and 32.8 points per game (tied for 32nd).

If Lebby left, it could create the worst-case scenario for the Sooners: 5-star quarterback and Gatorade National Player of the Year Jackson Arnold and several members of OU’s 2023 recruiting class have talked repeatedly about their close relationship with Lebby as a big reason why they chose OU.

Lebby, 39, is a former prized recruit for the Sooners himself. A 4-star offensive lineman from Andrews, TX, Lebby arrived at OU in 2002 but suffered a back injury in camp and never suited up. Instead, he earned his coaching chops on Bob Stoops’ staff as a student assistant under Mark Mangino.

He graduated from OU in 2007, coached Texas high schoolers, then joined Briles’ staff as running backs coach and eventually became passing game coordinator at Baylor.

In 2017, Lebby coached the offense at Southeastern University in Florida and directed the NAIA’s No. 1-rated offense. Heupel hired him at UCF as quarterbacks coach in 2018, and he became offensive coordinator in 2019, when he helped turn Gabriel into one of the nation’s most prolific quarterbacks and produced the nation’s No. 2 overall offense.

In 2019, only two teams averaged 300 yards passing and 200 yards rushing: UCF and Oklahoma.

O’Brien remains the Tide’s offensive coordinator for now, although Thamel and many others have cited numerous reasons why they expect him to leave the job, including potential NFL opportunities.