Matt Luke (American football)

Matthew Barham Luke (born October 29, 1976) is an American football coach and former player. He currently serves as 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 named Luke as the official head coach.

Playing career
Luke was born in Gulfport, Mississippi. He was a standout at Gulfport High School, but he was a walk-on at Ole Miss, where scholarships were limited because of NCAA sanctions. He played center there from 1995 to 1998, graduating in 1999. His father, Tommy Luke, played defensive back at Ole Miss in the 1960s while his older brother, Tom Luke, played quarterback there from 1989 to 1991. As a senior, he played in the 1998 Independence Bowl against Texas Tech.

Assistant 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 the latter was the assistant head coach/offensive coordinator.

Luke coached the offensive line and tight ends at Tennessee for two seasons (2006–2007). 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.