Former UGA offensive line coach Matt Luke spoke for the first time after his stunning resignation from the Bulldogs last month.
Luke left the business to spend more time with his family, he told Dawgs247′s Rusty Mansell:
“There’s a lot of fear, nervousness about it, because you’ve never done anything else,” Luke said. “But I didn’t want to have any regrets. My oldest son’s 14, my youngest one’s 10, and I didn’t want to have any regrets about seeing them grow up and being there. "
The 45-year-old Luke was only at UGA for two years, but he made his time count. He somehow found a way to keep momentum with OL recruiting after following in the gigantic footsteps of his predecessor, Sam Pittman – the current head coach at Arkansas. Luke also joked about the good luck of his UGA timing on Monday:
“I told Kirby (Smart) I’d help him win one (a championship), it just happened a little faster than I thought.”
Luke pointed out in the interview that he and his family plan to remain in the Athens area. He won’t be hurting for money during his early retirement, as he made $900,000 per season at UGA, and he was paid $3.2 million as the head coach of Ole Miss.
If Luke decides to return to coaching after an extended break, he won’t have any problems finding an elite job due to his track record of coaching and recruiting, along his charismatic and likeable personality.
UGA’s new offensive line coach is Stacy Searels, who also was a Bulldogs assistant in the same role under Mark Richt.