Matthew Barham Luke is an American football coach and former player who currently serves as the Associate Head Coach and Offensive Line Coach at the University of Georgia. Before his current position, he was most recently the head coach at the University of Mississippi. He was an assistant serving as the co-offensive coordinator at Ole Miss from 2012 to 2016, and served as the interim head coach during the 2017 season. On November 26, 2017, Ole Miss removed the “interim” designation and named Luke as head football coach. He held that position through the 2019 football season, when he was fired. According to Ole Miss Athletic Director, Kieth Carter, Luke was fired because of the Rebels’ lack of on-field success during his three years as head coach.
Luke exhausted his eligibility after the 1999 season but joined the coaching staff as a graduate assistant. After graduating from Ole Miss in 2000 with a Bachelor of Business Administration, he took a job with Murray State University as an offensive line coach. Following the 2001 season, he returned to Ole Miss to coach offensive line and tight ends under head coach David Cutcliffe. Ole Miss fired Cutcliffe after the 2004 season, but new head coach Ed Orgeron retained Luke as part of his staff. Luke departed Ole Miss in 2006 to be reunited with Cutcliffe at the University of Tennessee, where Cutcliffe was the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator under head coach Phillip Fulmer. Luke coached the offensive line and tight ends at Tennessee for two seasons. In early 2008, Duke University hired Cutcliffe as its new head coach, and Cutcliffe brought several Tennessee assistants with him, including Luke. At Duke, Luke was co-offensive coordinator with responsibility for the running game, while also coaching the offensive line. Luke departed Duke at the end of the 2011 season to rejoin the Ole Miss coaching staff under new head coach Hugh Freeze. At Ole Miss, he had a similar role: co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
Head coach
On July 20, 2017, Luke became the interim head coach at Ole Miss after Freeze was forced to resign. After a late season push to finish 6–6, Ole Miss removed the interim tag on November 26, 2017 and named Luke the 37th head football coach in school history. Ole Miss did not play in a bowl game because of a self-imposed postseason ban in response to NCAA rules violations committed when Freeze was head coach. The school and NCAA also imposed additional penalties, including a second post-season ban for the 2018 season ; three years of NCAA probation; reductions in scholarships; and recruiting restrictions. Ole Miss finished with losing records in the next two seasons, resulting in Luke's firing on December 1, 2019.
