Georgia offensive line coach Matt Luke is stepping down to spend more time with his family, coach Kirby Smart announced Monday.
Luke was the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach and associate head coach the past two seasons, and was Ole Miss‘ head coach from 2017 to ’19. Luke, who played center at Ole Miss and was a team captain, broke into coaching in 1999 and has spent 23 years in college coaching.
“Today, after much prayer and conversation with my family, I have decided to step away from coaching and shift my focus to spending more time with my family,” Luke said in a statement. “I want to thank coach Smart, his wife Mary Beth, and the entire Georgia family for an incredible past two seasons. I also appreciate Coach Smart’s support in my decision today. He’s a great coach, and I’ll always cherish his friendship. It has been an honor of a lifetime to be able to win a national championship with this staff and these players and something I will never forget.”
Luke also spent time at Duke under David Cutcliffe and at Tennessee under Phillip Fulmer. Luke was the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Ole Miss under Hugh Freeze from 2012 to ’16 and took over the head-coaching job on an interim basis a week before the start of preseason camp in 2017 when Freeze was fired. The interim tag was removed after the 2017 season, and Luke coached the Rebels in 2018 and 2019 before being fired.
Smart, in a statement, said that Luke “has been an invaluable part of our staff and played a great role in helping us win a national championship. We are so appreciative of everything he has done for Georgia football. Matt, Ashley and his children have been, and will continue to be, an important part of the Bulldog family and Athens community. We’re working on finding a coach that will continue to develop our young men and build our strong foundation with the offensive line.”
Luke is the fourth assistant coach from the 2021 staff to leave Georgia.
Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning left to become Oregon‘s head coach. Defensive backs coach Jahmile Addae left for the same position at Miami, while receivers coach Cortez Hankton left for the same position at LSU.