CBS Sports Sends Clear Message About Mississippi State Football in 2025

The Mississippi State Football program is in the midst of a rebuild with Jeff Lebby at the helm. After suffering a 2-10 season in 2024, which included a winless SEC schedule, there's many things to improve in Starkville. This low point is evident in CBS Sports' coaches ranking for 2025. 

Lebby was dead-last in the Power Four with 11 spots separating him and his closest conference peers. While his first year as head coach wasn't a success, it's all about progress moving forward.  

"Lebby inherited a difficult situation at Mississippi State and the results reflected that in his first season," Tom Fornelli wrote. "The Bulldogs finished 2-10 overall, with their lone wins coming against Eastern Kentucky and UMass. They were 0-8 in SEC play, losing by an average of 17.8 points per game. Still, based on my philosophy in these rankings, where I rank all coaches with no college head-coaching experience at the bottom, this ranking feels harsh."

One of the biggest observations with the rankings was Lebby being slotted below Stanford interim coach Frank Reich and UCF's Scott Frost, who was out of coaching for two years. Not to mention, North Carolina's Bill Belichick at No. 54 without coaching a college game in his famed career. In any regard, this gives a good indication about the national perspective for Mississippi State going into the upcoming season.