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Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby Nominated For 2023 Frank Broyles Award

The Broyles Award goes to college football's top assistant coach, and the Sooners have had a long list of coaches bring it home.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby Nominated For 2023 Frank Broyles Award
Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby Nominated For 2023 Frank Broyles Award

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Oklahoma Sooners

NORMAN — Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is among the 57 nominees for the 2023 Frank Broyles Award.

The Broyles Award goes to the top assistant coach in college football.

Lebby, the former Sooner offensive lineman who ended his playing career prematurely due to a back injury, transitioned immediately to coaching as a student assistant on Bob Stoops’ staff.

Lebby returned to his alma mater last year as Brent Venables’ offensive lieutenant after coaching stops at Baylor under Art Briles, UCF under Josh Heupel and Ole Miss under Lane Kiffin.

Lebby is one of two former Sooner offensive linemen nominated for the Broyles Award this season. The other is Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, who has served as interim head coach for the Wolverines during head coach Jim Harbaugh’s multiple suspensions this year.

The Broyles Award was created in 1996 to recognize Frank Broyles’ legacy of selecting and developing

great assistants during his hall of fame career as head coach at Arkansas.

Under Lebby’s tutelage, senior Quarterback Dillon Gabriel has emerged as a Heisman contender this season and has reached elite levels of NCAA and OU statistical achievements.

Gabriel ranks third in points responsible for (21.6 per game), ninth in completion percentage (.705), seventh in passer efficiency rating (172.1), seventh in passing yards (306.9 per game), eighth in passing TDs (25), 19th in completions (22.90 per game) and 26th in yards per completion (13.40), as well as 16th in rushing touchdowns (11).

Gabriel last week became just the second quarterback in FBS history to throw for 14,000 career yards and rush for 1,000 career yards, joining former Sooner Baker Mayfield.

Under Lebby, the Sooners currently rank fourth in the nation in total offense (505.4 yards per game), 35th in rushing offense (181.6), seventh in passing offense (323.8), fourth in scoring offense (41.8 points per game) and fifth in team passing efficiency (174.44 rating).

Lebby has already been mentioned in the media as a possible candidate for the Mississippi State opening. Many observers don’t believe his ties to Briles will hold him back as his career proceeds, but his decision to invite Briles to an OU game earlier this season left both Venables and OU athletic director Joe Castiglione disappointed in his decision making.

That night, Lebby defended his actions by remind everyone that Briles was his father in law and was grandfather to his kids.

But two days later, Lebby issued a public apology.

On Tuesday, Venables, who’s just finishing up his second season as a head coach and hasn’t begun to sprout his own coaching tree yet, warned of assistants jumping too soon to take a head coaching job.

Venables was famously an assistant at Kansas State, OU and Clemson for 29 years before returning to guide the program in Norman.

“There’s a time for everything,” Venables said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. “Be committed to where your feet are. You ask your players to do that, then you do the same. That’s what I would say. Don’t be a vagabond coach. Build something. Stand for something. Have some roots somewhere. Be loyal to the players and the people that gave you your opportunity.”

OU's past Broyles Award recipients include offensive coordinators Mark Mangino in 2000, Kevin Wilson in 2008 and Lincoln Riley in 2015. Chuck Long (2004) and Bill Bedenbaugh (2017) were finalists for the award.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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