2026 Mississippi State Football Coaching Turnover Tracker 2.0

[Pancho]

7 wins next year do look like a stretch at this point

[Jarius]

And then we'll hire a WR coach and everything will be fine. Until Lebby runs a play the fans don't like in the bowl game.

I do not understand the obsession with fans and the WR coach hire being announced right now. I’m lukewarm on Lebby and I am not crazy about him keeping everything locked up like Lemonis did but I mean damn take a Xanax. It’s a WR coach and Lebby is responsible for most of that anyway. It’s going to happen. He’s not watching Netflix and smoking dope on his couch. A hire is coming and it will produce WR because that is what this offense does. I’m just hoping we get some dogs on defense and on the OL. That’s what I’m worried about and I’m willing to give him the portal period to show us he can do something there.

[Jarius]

Hold on. Where did I bitch about a WR hire? I?m talking about multiple hires. We need to replace several coaches, most importantly DL. I agree on WR coach. We can pick up the guy coaching at Choctaw County and be fine there.

How close are we to a full staff? As I asked, are we running it back with most of the 2025 guys because Lebby can?t get anybody to jump on with a possible Lame-duck?

I doubt Arnett is just going to run it back with guys he doesn’t know and have not produced and I doubt Lebby will force him to do so. That’s not his style of coaching. He does not meddle with the defense. It may work or it may not but I guarantee you things are going on behind the scenes. I don’t like Corey Bell but the strong rumor is Kelley Jones is coming back and a lot of that is said to be because of Bell and if you get half of your position group locked down by a future first rounder for a year by bringing someone back then do it. I can coach Kelley Jones by slapping him on the ass and saying good job. I think we will have 2-3 new defensive hires when the portal opens.

[BigDawg81]

I doubt Arnett is just going to run it back with guys he doesn’t know and have not produced and I doubt Lebby will force him to do so. That’s not his style of coaching. He does not meddle with the defense. It may work or it may not but I guarantee you things are going on behind the scenes. I don’t like Corey Bell but the strong rumor is Kelley Jones is coming back and a lot of that is said to be because of Bell and if you get half of your position group locked down by a future first rounder for a year by bringing someone back then do it. I can coach Kelley Jones by slapping him on the ass and saying good job. I think we will have 2-3 new defensive hires when the portal opens.

Keeping a bad coach for a player to stay is a terrible idea and never works. That’s actual why we are in the situation that we are currently in.

[Jarius]

Keeping a bad coach for a player to stay is a terrible idea and never works. That’s actual why we are in the situation that we are currently in.

It is a bad reason to keep a coordinator. A position coach’s job is almost exclusively recruiting outside of a couple of spots and if you have half the field locked up it can work for a year. I don’t want him here long term but I would be ok with him staying for this year to keep Jones. Now Hutzler is a different situation all together. You can’t have a guy with that much responsibility on staff.

[Coach34]

Keeping a bad coach for a player to stay is a terrible idea and never works.

Explain to me why he is a bad coach? What techniques are being coached that make him bad? People say this shit without knowing a damn thing about what they are talking about. What is he teaching from a hip rotation and set up in their stance thats bad? What hand drills does he not do in practice that he should do to make him a better coach?

[confucius say]

I wouldn't go that far. There's definitely pressure on Lebby to win win probably 7 at least next year to feel totally safe.

Nah.

[Jarius]

Explain to me why he is a bad coach? What techniques are being coached that make him bad? People say this shit without knowing a damn thing about what they are talking about. What is he teaching from a hip rotation and set up in their stance thats bad? What hand drills does he not do in practice that he should do to make him a better coach?

Yea I don’t think it takes a rocket surgeon to coach corners at any level. If he can recruit that is the biggest part of the game and if a 1st round corner is coming back for him then you keep him.

[Coach34]

Yea I don’t think it takes a rocket surgeon to coach corners at any level. If he can recruit that is the biggest part of the game and if a 1st round corner is coming back for him then you keep him.

CB coach is the easiest job on the staff. Either you have dudes or you dont. Safeties coach is way more important because they have so many more responsibilities and reads. WR coach is probably the 2nd easiest job. U do hand and blocking drills. Thats about it. Those 2 positions are so much more about acquiring talent than coaching

[Jarius]

CB coach is the easiest job on the staff. Either you have dudes or you dont. Safeties coach is way more important because they have so many more responsibilities and reads. WR coach is probably the 2nd easiest job. U do hand and blocking drills. Thats about it. Those 2 positions are so much more about acquiring talent than coaching

Yep, and it looks like we have Isaac coming back at safety (if you want to call him a safety) and probably Manning get another year. I think we will be ok there. We need to load up on the DL. Whitson is a big returner and we need 3 more big time guys up front. We supposedly have 30 million dollars to spend on this team. Can we get enough dudes with that money to make us competitive? Last year we could not give away money to difference makers. I hope we can this year. This staff will be in prove it mode.

[Todd4State]

Some have already made up their minds about Lebby. They may turn out to be right. They may turn out to be wrong. The issue is that IF they turn out to be wrong, they'll construe it as we still did things wrong but got lucky.

I know this much, it doesn't matter who we hire at WR coach. That is not going to make or break our program. Chad Bumphis sucked as a WR coach. His development was terrible(see Rickey Johnson, Sanfrisco Magee, JJ Harrell, Markus Allen, Cam Thompson, etc). The best receivers we had were finished products recruited by Jeff Lebby. That's the facts.

I also know that if we don't significantly increase our buy in and NIL, we will have to hire a project again if Lebby fails. Dan isn't coming. He's not. He doesn't want to come back to Starkville. He's fond of his time, but he just doesn't want to come back. G6 coaches are not going to be beating down our door to come coach a team that has very little NIL buy in, fairweather fans, and school that prioritizes a non rev sport over rev sports.

The crazy thing to me about Dan and MSU fans is Dan was given the time to develop and establish his program. What did he do in year 1? Go 5-7. That sounds familiar doesn't it? We have too many fans holding 2024 and Toledo against Lebby. Every situation is different.

Bringing Dan back would be a mistake long term for MSU. Sure, he can win with KT. I think Lebby can too by the way. As we have talked about we need to build our NIL and resources. We don't need a nostalgia grab with a guy who isn't the best recruiter, will have a harder schedule than he had his first go around, and will leave as soon as he has any kind of success or will try to.

So, that being said that's why I fully expect MSU to bring him back.

[Todd4State]

I do not understand the obsession with fans and the WR coach hire being announced right now. I’m lukewarm on Lebby and I am not crazy about him keeping everything locked up like Lemonis did but I mean damn take a Xanax. It’s a WR coach and Lebby is responsible for most of that anyway. It’s going to happen. He’s not watching Netflix and smoking dope on his couch. A hire is coming and it will produce WR because that is what this offense does. I’m just hoping we get some dogs on defense and on the OL. That’s what I’m worried about and I’m willing to give him the portal period to show us he can do something there.

Bingo!

I doubt Arnett is just going to run it back with guys he doesn’t know and have not produced and I doubt Lebby will force him to do so. That’s not his style of coaching. He does not meddle with the defense. It may work or it may not but I guarantee you things are going on behind the scenes. I don’t like Corey Bell but the strong rumor is Kelley Jones is coming back and a lot of that is said to be because of Bell and if you get half of your position group locked down by a future first rounder for a year by bringing someone back then do it. I can coach Kelley Jones by slapping him on the ass and saying good job. I think we will have 2-3 new defensive hires when the portal opens.

If you look at Arnett historically, we really doesn't have very many guys that are "his guys." He inherited Leach's defensive staff when we first hired him. And when he was at Utah, their defensive staff was one of Dan's friends- Paul Guenther and mostly guys that coached under Odom that Dan retained. Now that he is back you could say that Matt Brock is one of his guys but my point is outside of David Turner who we know is likely retiring that there may not be very many changes. Of course, I could see Barnes leaving but if we're replacing him with Brett Dewhurst I would honestly be kind of disappointed. But I would not be surprised at all if Bell is coming back. And honestly Barnes for that matter too.

[Wink&aPrayer]

CB coach is the easiest job on the staff. Either you have dudes or you dont. Safeties coach is way more important because they have so many more responsibilities and reads. WR coach is probably the 2nd easiest job. U do hand and blocking drills. Thats about it. Those 2 positions are so much more about acquiring talent than coaching

Agree

[KB21]

Dang! Muschamp is going to Texas as defensive coordinator. Sark has fired Pete Kwiatkowski and Duane Akina.

[BrunswickDawg]

Dang! Muschamp is going to Texas as defensive coordinator. Sark has fired Pete Kwiatkowski and Duane Akina.

Man... that's gonna set Hadad off LOL

[TrapGame]

Dang! Muschamp is going to Texas as defensive coordinator. Sark has fired Pete Kwiatkowski and Duane Akina.

Is Muschamp an upgrade over Pete K? I don?t think so.

[Coach34]

Is Muschamp an upgrade over Pete K? I don?t think so.

15 years ago? Absolutely

Today? Not sure.

[TrapGame]

15 years ago? Absolutely

Today? Not sure.

Man, I just do not see Muschamp fielding a better defense than what they already had. Manning being hot and cold was worse than the defense.

[Coursesuper]

15 years ago? Absolutely

Today? Not sure.

15 years ago yeah, but a lot has changed since then. Nobody sits still you’re either evolving or dead in the game. He will have talent to work with for sure, maybe time with Kirby has rubbed off like you said.

[Jarius]

They had a good defense this year and fired the DC. Makes sense **