What is worth more than fame or fortune? To Matt Luke, family

When you have been as big a Georgia Bulldogs fan as I have for the past seven decades, people just assume you have inside information about the inner workings of the various programs. But I don’t. Like Will Rogers often said, “All I know is what I read in the papers.” Except when I know more.

This week I have been able to answer a question about the inner workings of Georgia football with complete confidence. Not because I have inside information - but because I have an understanding of the character of a particular man. 

I have been in a foreign country this week. The Conch Republic. Key West. I’ve enjoyed sunsets and key lime pie and people watching. Duval Street in Key West rivals any street anywhere for people watching. If I ever wanted to disappear from society and hide all I would need to do is come to Key West and sit in a dark corner at Captain Tony’s Saloon and no one would ever find me. It is a different world.

But they still have telephones and television news and the internet in Key West, so we still got the unsettling news that offensive line coach, Matt Luke, was stepping down from his position on Kirby Smart’s staff. Coach Luke announced that he wanted to spend more time with his family.

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Once the news was made public my phone started blowing up. That’s a funny expression we have. My phone didn’t blow up. But it did go “ding-ding-ding” all day.

People wanted to know the “real reason” Matt Luke was stepping away from football. It is a sign of the times. Everyone assumed something nefarious was happening. “No one would just walk away from all that wealth and prestige when the football program is at its zenith.” That’s what people told me. Except they probably didn’t say “zenith.” Most of my friends don’t know that word. They probably said, “on top.”

But I think Matt Luke would. And I think he did. For just the reason he said.

For those of you who do not live and die with the fortunes of Georgia football-now, now-there may be one or two in our area that do not-I’ll give you a little primer of Matthew Barham Luke. He is a mere 45 years of age, having been born in Gulfport, Mississippi two days before Halloween in the year of our nation’s bicentennial year. He walked on at Ole Miss and played center. I am certain he could have been a scholarship athlete at many other schools, but his dad played at Ole Miss and so did his brother.

Ole Miss is where his family went to school, and Matt Luke has always been about family. 

He has also always been about football and after he had completed his eligibility at Ole Miss, he stayed on their as a graduate assistant. Then he began the itinerant life of most young football coaches. He was an assistant at Murray State, then back home to Ole Miss, then to Tennessee and then to Duke, of all places. 

But he returned to his alma mater, Ole Miss, after the 2011 season, when Hugh Freeze was hired as head coach. In 2017, Hugh Freeze was forced to resign during the off season for off-the-field antics unbefitting a Rebel Head Coach and former walk-on, Matt Luke, was named interim head coach at his Alma Mater. It must have been a dream come true, even though he was a bit handcuffed by the fact that his team was in the midst of a swarth of NCAA sanctions, making the playing field a bit unlevel.

Luke’s team went 6-6 in his first year and the interim tag was removed from his name. The Rebels were 5-7 and 4-8 the next two years and he was dismissed. His misfortune was Georgia’s great fortune, because Kirby Smart immediately hired Matt Luke to be the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach and he has been superb.

This year the National Championship Georgia Bulldogs gave up only 16 sacks in 15 games. In the Orange Bowl, Georgia failed to give up a single sack to a great Michigan Defense led by Heisman Trophy runner-up Adrian Hutchinson. When Georgia needed a yard this year, they were able to bow up and get a yard. The Georgia offense set school records for points scored TD's, yards gained and TD passes. I don’t care how skilled your skill people are. You don’t do those things without your troops up front being very good and very well coached.

But back to Matt Luke. He is a good, Christian, family man. I see him at church on Sunday with his wife and kids. I see him out in the community with his sons, Harrison and Cooper. Except I don’t see Coach Luke much from August to the middle of January. 

Coaching college football at a place like Georgia brings great rewards and much glory, but it comes at a steep price, a price that is time and energy exhaustive and there isn’t much left over for anything else. Sometimes people decided that time is a more valuable commodity than fame or fortune and they step down for a bit.

Like Matt Luke has. May God go with him.