It's what it is. He's burned out. Been coaching for 22 years, made a combined 18.5 million. Has 2 boys that are I believe 11 and 14. Wants to spend time with his family, which makes sense at this age. It is being reported that the family are staying in Athens. I don't have anywhere close to the money he has, but when my kids turned 13 and 15 I totally changed my work and stopped traveling almost 100%. I just wanted to spend the high school years with my kids. If I did it, with 18 million+, I can see it.
Look, working as an OL/OC for 4 years, 4 years HC at Ole Miss, and then 2 years under Kirby ain't easy. They are constantly recruiting high school players and now their own players to keep them out of the transfer portal. With the amount of money the make, and the demands on their time it's not surprising.
I am not concerned. We will get a top OC as a replacement. Our OL is stacked ... we will lose at least 3 OL at the end of spring as their simply isn't PT for everyone. My guess is we will lose at least on 5*, at least a highly rated 4*.
Luke had to replace Sam Pittman, which wasn't easy. And while he was a great recruiter, I never got the feeling we were developing and using the great OL talent we have to the max. When we shifted our LT Salyer to RG, and brought in 5* Broderick Jones, in the 3rd quarter of the championship game things started happening and we pounded the shit out of Bama in the 4th quarter. The problem is that a lot of fans had ben saying we needed to do that most of the season. On one hand hate to see him go, on the other whoever steps in gets a loaded OL with talent and we can hope he will be a better coach.