Oklahoma has finalized a deal with Jeff Lebby to be the Sooners’ new offensive coordinator and will make him one of the highest-paid coordinators in college football, sources told ESPN.
Lebby has been Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator the past two seasons under Lane Kiffin and is scheduled to be in Norman, Oklahoma on Wednesday. His average annual salary will be just under $2 million, sources told ESPN.
Brent Venables, the former Clemson defensive coordinator, was hired Monday as Oklahoma’s head coach to replace Lincoln Riley, and a big part of Venables’ plan at OU was to land Lebby as his offensive coordinator.
Lebby calls the plays at Ole Miss, in conjunction with Kiffin, and the Rebels have ranked in the top 5 nationally in total offense each of the past two seasons.
Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral blossomed this season into one of the top players in the country. He was the only FBS quarterback with more than 3,000 passing yards (3,339) and more than 500 rushing yards (597). He finished with 20 touchdown passes to go along with 11 rushing touchdowns and threw just four interceptions. That’s after throwing 14 interceptions a year ago.
Lebby was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award each of the past two seasons. He spent four years as a student assistant at Oklahoma after signing to play there but suffered an injury that ended his playing career.
Prior to coming to Ole Miss, Lebby worked at UCF for six seasons and served as the Knights’ offensive coordinator for the last four. He was also the offensive coordinator for two seasons (2011-12) at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. Prior to that, he spent nine seasons at Baylor from 2008-16, the last two seasons as passing game coordinator.
Venables, with his defensive background, is following a similar route as Bob Stoops in bringing in a cutting-edge offensive coordinator. Stoops’ first offensive coordinator at OU was Mike Leach.