Tennessee football: Jeff Lebby could be dark horse splash hire for Vols OC

Tennessee football’s offensive coordinator search is still going on. The Volunteers could find a surprise home run hire in Jeff Lebby.

I’ve been driving the Kendal Briles train for Tennessee football for over two weeks now. But recently, another name popped up for the Vols, and it’s one with less of a resume despite amazing production on his own.

This guy is Jeff Lebby. Reports last week suggested that Lebby, who is quarterbacks coach for the UCF Knights, interviewed for the job along with Briles and Oklahoma State Cowboys offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich.

If the Vols can’t get Briles, Lebby is a very nice consolation. Heck, he may even be a better hire altogether. Lebby has obviously had a huge role in UCF’s record setting passing offense this year en route to the team’s second straight undefeated season.

But what’s more impressive is what he did the year before. The guy was an NAIA offensive coordinator for the Southeastern University Fire. His one year there, the Fire never failed to score 30 points in a game, an accomplishment identical to what Briles did with the Houston Cougars this year and why he is so popular.

I don’t care if Lebby did it at a much smaller level. If you can coach, you can coach, and his talent was on the same playing field as his opponents’ talents were. It’s worth noting that his teams broke 40 in eight of their nine games and broke 50 in six of their nine games. In 2016 and 2018, the two years surrounding the one year Lebby was there, Southeastern failed to break 30 three times and four times respectively.

By the way, before going there, Lebby worked with Kendal Briles and the Baylor Bears for five years, for of which were under Art Briles. So it’s worth noting that he’s trained in the same offense, and here’s the real kicker: He’s Art Briles’s son-in-law.

Simply put, the guy is the same offensive genius that those guys are. And for the big splash, he doesn’t have any baggage that anybody can report to. I said last week that Kendal Briles doesn’t have any real baggage, but his name coming up in the civil lawsuit against Baylor is still out there. Art Briles obviously has the real baggage.

Jeff Lebby, though, has none of that. He’s just the same brilliant offensive mind as those guys, and Tennessee football could get a steal by bringing him to Knoxville. Lebby would not be a splash hire on its face. But his pedigree and his results show that he is almost certain to succeed on Rocky Top given the chance.