UGA OL coach Matt Luke

Georgia spared no expense in luring Matt Luke to its coaching staff as the offensive line coach and associate head coach. According to information obtained by Dawgs247 via an open records request under the Freedom of Information Act, Luke will make $900,000.

The length of the contract was not included in the information Dawgs247 was able to obtain. He'll be paid $375,000 in base salary with $525,000 coming as additional compensation.

Luke was hired by Kirby Smart less than 48 hours after Sam Pittman took the job as the head coach at Arkansas. In Pittman's final season at UGA, he also made $900,000. Pittman worked under multi-year contracts while at UGA, consistently getting a raise before his previous contract was complete. He spent four years with the program and was a member of Smart's initial staff.

“We are extremely excited and fortunate to have Matt join our staff,” Smart said in a statement after Luke was hired. “He’s a proven football coach who has a wealth of experience on the offensive side of the ball, especially in the offensive line. He has a great reputation among those who have played for him and it’s obvious watching his teams over many years that players love him and play hard for him.”

Luke is coming off a three-year stint as the head coach at Ole Miss where he amassed a record of 15-21. He was let go after the Rebels lost 21-20 in the Egg Bowl against in-state rival Mississippi State. The first of his three seasons at Ole Miss was spent as the interim head coach. The Rebel administration removed that tag after the 2017 season.

Luke helped pull the Rebels through NCAA sanctions after Hugh Freeze was fired prior to the 2017 season Ole Miss got better from year to year under Luke but the Egg Bowl loss caused it to finish 4-8 and sixth in the SEC West for the third straight season.

The former Ole Miss offensive lineman's entire coaching career has been in The South. He started as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss in 1999 before becoming the offensive line coach at Murray State in 2000. He spent two seasons there before going back to Ole Miss as the offensive line and tight ends coach in 2002. He spent three years at Ole Miss with David Cutcliffe as the head coach and when Cutcliffe was let go after the 2004 season, Luke was retained by Ed Orgeron. After four years in Oxford, Luke moved on to Tennessee under head coach Phillip Fulmer and Cutcliffe (offensive coordinator) in 2006 and 2007.

When Cutcliffe moved on to become the head coach at Duke, Luke followed. He spent four years there, serving as the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach before returning to Ole Miss in 2012. In his third stint with the Rebels, Luke held the same positions as he did during his time at Duke. He did that from 2012 to 2016 before taking over as the interim head coach.

During his career as an assistant coach, Luke coached guys like Michael Oher (Ole Miss), Arron Sears (Tennessee), Laremy Tunsill (Ole Miss) and Greg Little (Ole Miss). He has coached under or with offensive guru's like Cutcliffe, Freeze, and Rich Rodriguez during his career.

Luke might be able to help coach the Bulldog offensive line for its matchup with Baylor in the Allstate Sugar Bowl but he'll, at the very least, get a chance to evaluate a group that is stocked with talent thanks to Pittman's recruiting efforts.