Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby is sounding the alarm about tampering in college football. In doing so, the 40-year-old is either way behind the eight ball or choosing to ignore the reality of his own program’s practices.
The Bulldogs should also be involved in tampering.
Lebby is currently wrapping up his first year in Starkville. The Bulldogs are 2-8 with wins over Eastern Kentucky and UMass, without a single win in the SEC. Even though this season was not expected to be a great success, it has been even worse than imagined.
As Lebby already starts to look ahead to next fall, he is dealing with a very common problem. Other programs are actively trying to lure his players into the transfer portal.
He is frustrated with the current system because tampering is a major issue.
Well, yeah, it’s going on. There’re guys guys on our football team right now that are going through that.
— Jeff Lebby
The solution must come from the top.
Until that is managed and policed at the highest level, there’s nothing that’s going to stop people from doing it.
— Jeff Lebby
Lebby did not name any specific players by name. Nor did he expose any of the schools or coaches who are reaching their grubby little fingers into his roster.
Jeff Lebby is not wrong!
Tampering is a problem that has rotted college football from its core. Countless coaches have complained. Nothing has changed.
With that being said, Lebby is choosing to ignore the reality of the situation. He latched onto a lemon.
Mississippi State is broke. The Bulldogs (through The Bulldog Initiative) have a severe NIL problem that will prevent them from landing top talent through the transfer portal and through the more traditional high school recruiting pipeline. It already is! They can’t keep up with the rest of the SEC.
Programs with more money are approaching Lebby’s players with a paycheck his NIL collective cannot match. Meanwhile, Jeff Lebby is either trying to do the exact same thing or completely failing to keep up with the current climate of the sport. Mississippi State needs to be tampering with Group of Five Six and FCS programs if it has any chance of getting to a competitive level in the near future.
As the old saying goes— if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. The Bulldogs are 2-8, so they need to start tampering if they are not already. If they are already tampering, Lebby’s whining is hypocritical.
For a Southeastern Conference head coach to complain about tampering is not a good look.