Georgia Football: Breaking down the Matt Luke hire
By Eric Taylor
Georgia football has hired former Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke to take over for offensive line coach Sam Pittman, who left to take the head coaching job at Arkansas
The Georgia football program didn’t waste any time replacing former offensive line coach and recruiting whiz Sam Pittman, hiring Matt Luke, who was fired as head coach at Ole Miss earlier this season. Luke’s official title will be Associate Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach.
Luke played center for Ole Miss from 1995-98. He got his first coaching gig at Murray State as an offensive line coach. He was there from 2000-01 before going back to coach offensive line and tight ends for Ole Miss in 2002. In 2005 he would once again leave Ole Miss, this time to head to Tennessee.
Luke would make another stop at Duke, as Co-Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach, before once again going back to Ole Miss with the same title.
He would be given the Head Coach on an interim basis after Hugh Freeze was let go. After going 6-6 in his first season as interim Head Coach, Ole Miss made him the full-time Head Coach. Ole Miss fired him on December 1st of this year after a career record of 15-21.
In Luke’s 25 years around college football, he has coached 17 all-conference players. Two of those are well known NFL players Laremy Tunsil and Laken Tomlinson.
Luke also coached six NFL draft picks.
- Tackle Greg Little, second round 2019
- Center Javon Patterson, seventh round 2019
- Guard Rod Taylor, seventh round 2018
- Tackle Laremy Tunsil, first round 2016
- Tackle Fahn Cooper, fifth round 2016
- Tackle Bobby Massie, fourth round 2012
There were numerous Bulldogs who endorsed Luke for Offensive Line Coach at Georgia. Former Georgia center and current New England Patriot David Andrews was pushing for Coach Luke to be hired and gave this ringing endorsement.
If @CoachMattLuke is the next oline coach at @GeorgiaFootball they will be in good hands. He recruited me when he was at duke and was my favorite coach that I got to spend time with. Really pushing for this one!
— David Andrews (@dandrews61) December 10, 2019
Georgia legend and ESPN analyst David Pollack was also on board with the hire.
Huge get!!!!!! Passion, energy, knowledge, experience. As good as you can possibly hire. https://t.co/vb3JbHIMUl
— David Pollack (@davidpollack47) December 10, 2019
Justin Shaffer reached out to his new coach shortly after hearing he was hired.
@CoachMattLuke Let’s go get money coach 💪🏾🤷🏾♂️
— Justin Shaffer (@ShafferJustin54) December 10, 2019
Matt Luke wasted no time getting out on the road to talk to Georgia’s committed offensive line in the 2020 recruiting class.
New #UGA OL coach Matt Luke already on the recruiting trail checking up on Bulldog commits. https://t.co/UWup05Jy4t https://t.co/82XHQcSv5Z pic.twitter.com/6v6nyJQFsd
— Trent Smallwood (@SmallwoodTrent) December 10, 2019
Losing Sam Pittman isn’t great, but Matt Luke is a suitable replacement. Players love playing for him and work their tails off for him. I feel like Luke will keep up the momentum that Pittman built here and I wouldn’t be surprised if he even keeps most, if not all, of Georgia’s 2019 offensive line commitments in the class.
Luke is another out of the park hire from Kirby and maybe even an upgrade. Only time will tell.
Welcome to Dawgnation, Matt Luke!
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