SEC Football: Grading the head coaching hires by Mississippi State, Texas A&M

Over the weekend, the two lone head coaching vacancies in SEC football were officially filled, as both Mississippi State and Texas A&M named the replacements for Zach Arnett and Jimbo Fisher. Who were those two new hires for the Bulldogs and Aggies, and what grade would we give each?

Grading the SEC football head coaching hires by Mississippi State, Texas A&M

Mississippi State Bulldogs

• Grade: B 

Beginning with Mississippi State, the Bulldogs were likely not the splashiest hire of the two teams, but still made a notable move by bringing Jeff Lebby to Starkville for what is his first head coaching job at the collegiate level.

Lebby comes to Mississippi State after serving as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma during the 2022-23 seasons, with the Sooners offense ranking No. 3 nationally under his watch at 43.2 PPG this past season. In 2022, the Sooners would rank No. 33 nationally at 32.8 PPG, with Lebby serving under head coach Brent Venables in both years.

Prior to his time at Oklahoma, Lebby saw time at both UCF and Ole Miss as offensive coordinator, serving as OC of the Knights in 2019 where they averaged 43.4 PPG to rank No. 5 nationally while serving under head coach Josh Heupel. Lebby would then serve as OC at Ole Miss from 2020-21 under head coach Lane Kiffin, with the Rebels averaging 39.2 PPG (No. 14 nationally) and 33.7 PPG (No. 24 nationally) in those years, respectively.

As mentioned previously, Lebby might not be the splashiest hire for Mississippi State, but it is one that will return the Bulldogs to a more offensive-minded approach that we saw in Starkville during recent years.

When it comes to the grade, we’ll give Mississippi State a solid B. Not the splashiest hire, but one that is certainly intriguing.

Texas A&M Aggies

• Grade: B+

As for Texas A&M, the Aggies head coaching search was undoubtedly the most talked about in all of college football, with the program eventually hiring Mike Elko as the new head coach in College Station.

Elko comes back to Texas A&M after previously serving as the head coach at Duke for each of the last two seasons. Combined across the 2022-23 seasons, Elko led Duke to a 16-9 overall record, while also being named the 2022 ACC Coach of the Year in his first season in Durham.

Prior to taking over at Duke, Elko previously served as the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M from 2018-21 where he was the DC under Fisher, while also seeing time in the same role with Hofstra, Bowling Green, and Wake Forest from 2006-16, as well as a season at Notre Dame in 2017. During his time in College Station however, Elko’s defenses would improve each year, headlined by one of the nation’s top defensive units in 2021:

• 2018: 25.3 PPG (No. 47 nationally)
• 2019: 22.5 PPG (No. 39 nationally) 
• 2020: 21.7 PPG (No. 28 nationally)
• 2021: 15.9 PPG (No. 3 nationally) 

While maybe not the biggest-named candidate the Aggies could have gotten, Elko is certainly a strong hire who has proven past success, not only already as a head coach at the Power 5 level, but also at Texas A&M in particular, and will inherit a team that is among the most talented in SEC football.

As for the grade, Texas A&M gets a B+. It might not be what some fans may have wanted, but has the potential to be a good move, especially if Elko can continue that same defensive success from 2021.