Jeff Lebby didn’t go anywhere after the 2020 Ole Miss season. He returned as the offensive coordinator for the Rebels for the 2021 year, which really seemed to work out for everyone involved.

The 2020 Ole Miss football season did well to provide plenty of excitement for fans of the Rebels. General onlookers were certainly paying attention to the way Lane Kiffin and Jeff Lebby were designing their system to run. 

And in year two, things really picked up a bit for the Rebels. 

Year one was solid in terms of taking a step forward as a program given everything that it had gone through from the end of the Hugh Freeze era and through the uninspiring Matt Luke era, but year two with Kiffin and Lebby led to a lot of fun for the Ole Miss football team.

1. Dontario Drummond stepped up in a huge way for Jeff Lebby and the Ole Miss offense
2. 2021 Ole Miss Rebels stats: Wide receivers

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This is part of a project of tracking the entirety of Jeff Lebby’s offenses (prior to his stop in Starkville, for now at least). So, here you go. This is just one slice of the project.

Dontario Drummond stepped up in a huge way for Jeff Lebby and the Ole Miss offense

The offense wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it took considerable steps forward in development and with the way that it was implemented. Passing wise, Ole Miss really looked solid and the Rebels were able to get the ball to several wide receivers in an effective manner. 

Elijah Moore wasn’t back, but Dontario Drummond stepped up and became the 1000+ yard receiver that the Rebels needed. With 76 receptions, 1028 receiving yards, and 8 touchdowns, Drummond was a legitimately solid pass catching threat for Lebby’s offense. He was the clear number 1 receiver during the 2021 Ole Miss football season.

2021 Ole Miss Rebels stats: Wide receivers

Name	REC	YDS	AVG	TD
Dontario Drummond	76	1028	13.53	8
Braylon Sanders	24	549	22.88	4
Jahcour Pearson	26	392	15.08	0
Jonathan Mingo	22	346	15.73	3
Dannis Jackson	12	244	20.33	2
Jadon Jackson	5	42	8.40	0
Jordan Jernigan	1	0	0.00	0
JJ Henry	0	0	0.00	0

After Drummond comes Braylon Sanders, who caught just 24 passes for 549 yards and a total of 4 touchdowns. Jahcour Pearson caught 26 passes for 392 yards and then Jonathan Mingo caught 22 passes for 346 yards and 3 touchdowns. Dennis Jackson rounds out the bunch with 12 receptions for 244 yards and a couple more scores.

It is interesting that (focusing exclusively on a “wide receivers catching passes and looking at the stats” perspective for right now) Lebby’s offenses at Ole Miss in 2020 and 2021 more closely resembled what happened at Southeastern with the Fire in 2017 versus his offense with the UCF Knights in 2019. Some of that has to do with personnel on the roster. Some of it might have to do with the head coach in place at each program and the way they influenced how the offense was called.