Georgia football lost a ton of offensive line talent this offseason to the NFL Draft and to transfer.
Maybe the biggest talent that Georgia lost at the position was not even a player, but position coach Sam Pittman, who left to become head coach at Arkansas.
Georgia lost both its starting tackles and guards from last season but were able to sign seven offensive linemen in this class.
With the quick hire of former Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke to take over for Pittman in Athens, Georgia did not miss a beat on the recruiting trail.
After Georgia football landed college football’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class, head coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media about why he recruited each position group the way that he did.
When discussing the offensive line group, Smart mentioned how thrilled he was with the quick hiring of Luke and how important that was to the recruits.
Luke helped Georgia to sign the nation’s No. 2 and No. 3 offensive tackles and the No. 1 center.
Kirby Smart on the offensive line:
“We’re excited about the offensive line class. First of all it ranges from large and wide to a little bit lighter and more athletic. These guys will have to develop. I’ve always said the offensive line position is probably the toughest to come in and play right away if you just rank all the positions going forward. Andrew was very unique to be able to do that but that’s very rare to be able to do that at that position. These guys will have to come in develop, lift, work. What’s going to be unique for us is a lot of these guys may be littered across the two-deep. Just because our numbers are really down on the offensive line. They’ve got a good opportunity to come in and compete and start but they’ll also be going against some guys this spring that are going to get better and grow. Coach Luke is a big part of that energy. Getting him on staff fast was probably one of the critical roles to that transition. It wasn’t a long time process where they had to sit on the unknown. Two days, three days after Coach Pittman left these kid had somebody new to meet and began to meet them before the middle dead period, the Christmas dead period. It was critical so that he could communicate with them throughout that period and keep a relationship. He’s got a lot of energy. He’s been a blessing for us. In addition, it helps me from a head coach standpoint. It did help a lot on the offensive line.”