Jeff Lebby arrived to quite a welcome in Starkville last night that culminated with athletic director Zac Selmon crowd surfing among players like a rock star.
Tonight, the details of Lebby's contract have been shared.
Administration stepped up to the plate for Lebby, with a four-year deal worth $4,510,000 annually.
While it still ranks toward the bottom, ahead of only Vanderbilt's Clark Lea based on last year's salaries, it marks a significant improvement over what Zach Arnett made in his one season leading the program. After initially serving as interim head coach following Mike Leach's untimely passing Arnett was the lowest paid coach in the league at $3 million annually after being named to the full-time role.
The salary puts Lebby closer to the ball park that the late Mike Leach made upon hiring him away from Washington State. Leach's initial deal called for an annual salary of $5 million annually, and he later signed an extension in June of 2022 that would have taken him through 2025 where he was set to make $5.5 million annually.
Lebby's incentives call for:
- $50k for SEC Coach of the Year honors
- $100k for National Coach of the Year
- $125k for each regular season win against an SEC opponent starting with the 5th SEC win
He can also earn the highest of either a $100k bonus for an SEC championship game appearance or $250k for winning the SEC title.
Lebby could also earn $200k for participating in the first round of the new format of the College Football Playoff, $350k for advancing to the quarterfinals, $500k for playing in the semis, $750k for playing for that national title and a cool $1 million for winning it all.
As an assistant coach at Oklahoma, Lebby was among the top five highest paid coaches in college football at $1.9 million per year.
The rest of the incentives can bee seen below (shared via Stefan Krajisnik)