An SEC head coach that previously served as an assistant coach under current Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel is entering the 2026 season on the hot seat.

And if he ends up getting fired, he’d be a perfect fit for a key role at Tennessee.

ESPN listed Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby this week as a coach whose seat is warm in 2026.

Lebby, who is entering his third season in Starkville, is 7-18 through his first two seasons at Mississippi State.

“Lebby’s team took a step forward from Year 1 to Year 2, especially in nonleague play, where the Bulldogs went 4-0 and stunned then-No. 12 Arizona State, the defending Big 12 champion,” wrote ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg this week. “Mississippi State struggled in SEC play at 1-7, and although it lost two games in overtime and another by two points, it was outscored 128-67 in the final three league games. Athletic director Zac Selmon hired Lebby, who engineered some improvement on offense last fall. But at 1-15 in SEC games, Lebby must deliver some meaningful results this fall to ensure [another] season in Starkville.”

Mississippi State probably needs to finish 2026 with a winning record for Lebby to return for a fourth season — and that could be difficult with the Bulldogs facing a nine-game conference schedule.

Lebby served as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under Heupel at UCF in 2018 and 2019. The two coaches also overlapped at Oklahoma in the early 2000s when Lebby was a student assistant and Heupel was a graduate assistant.

“A guy that I got more respect for than maybe anybody in the profession,” said Lebby when asked about Heupel in late 2024. “A great friend that had been a great mentor to me. Had an opportunity to work for him. It was an incredible experience. A guy that’s incredibly consistent. You look at what he’s done. The amount of success that he’s had, the culture he’s created at an incredible place. And man, just again, a ton of respect for who he is as a person, as a father, as a husband, and then obviously as a football coach as well.” 

Jeff Lebby would make perfect sense for Tennessee if he’s fired by Mississippi State

If Lebby is fired by Mississippi State, he’d instantly make sense as an option to join Tennessee’s coaching staff.

Lebby, in fact, could help solve one of the Vols’ biggest issues under Josh Heupel.

One of the biggest problems Heupel had in 2025 was game management in end-of-half situations.

We saw several instances last season where it seemed like the game sped up on Heupel because he had too much on his plate (such as when Heupel forgot an important rule in the Vols’ loss to Oklahoma).

“I would say his tweak this offseason needs to be in terms of game management,” said the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Adam Sparks of Heupel last fall. “Because if you look at him on the sideline — usually you can’t see this on TV, but live you can — he’s obviously calling plays. He’s communicating a lot. Some of the game management and time management issues they’ve had in two or three games this year has been where he’s obviously trying to do three different jobs at one time.

“I do think this offseason, if not during the season, he needs to figure out some way to let some things go and be able to manage that a little better….or get rid of play calling duties. Which I don’t think he’s going to do — at least not with the guys he has on staff right now. But something’s got to give. Lane Kiffin gave up play calling duties, and he has said that he can see so much more of the game. And [he can] look ahead rather than thinking about what his third-and-six play is. And that’s something that Josh Heupel’s got to figure out this offseason.”

It’s unclear exactly how Tennessee’s play-calling process works between Heupel and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle, but it’s widely believed that Heupel has a heavy hand in the process.

The play calling itself was good in 2025. Not every play call, of course, is going to work out. But the Vols finished with the No. 6 scoring offense in the nation at 39.8 points per game — there’s not much to critique there.

Clock management, however, was a different story.

Adding Lebby to the coaching staff in some role — again, if he gets fired by Mississippi State — would give Heupel a former SEC head coach who already knows his system. I’m not saying Lebby should (or would) replace Halzle as the offensive coordinator — that’s a decision Heupel would have to make based on what he sees during the week. But I do think Lebby could take some game day responsibilities off Heupel’s plate, which could help smooth out some of the clock management issues.

Again, all of this depends on whether Lebby keeps his job at Mississippi State, which feels like a long shot given the schedule the Bulldogs are facing — October is particularly tough with games against Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Nick Saban was famous for bringing in former head coaches to serve on his staff in some capacity. Bringing in Lebby, if he becomes available, seems like a no-brainer for Heupel and the Vols.

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