Georgia officially announces hiring of Stacy Searels as offensive line coach

Georgia has officially announced the hiring of Stacy Searels as their offensive line coach. After reports surfaced that the Bulldogs were hiring the former North Carolina offensive line coach, the program announced the hire Monday afternoon on Twitter.

Welcome back to #DawgNation @SSearels!#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/tRSmhBV9bK

— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) February 28, 2022

“Welcome back to #DawgNation @SSearels!” tweeted Georgia Football.

As you can tell by the caption, it won’t be the first time for Searels in Athens. He coached the offensive line for Georgia from 2007 to 2010, earning the title of running game coordinator in 2010. With current Georgia offensive analyst Mike Bobo as the offensive coordinator and Searels leading the offensive line, the Bulldogs ranked in the top 25 for fewest sacks allowed three times.

Since his first stint with Georgia, Searels has coached the Tar Heels offensive line since 2019. He also coached at Texas (2011-13), Virginia Tech (2014-15) and Miami (2016-18). This season, UNC posted their second season leading the ACC in rushing yards behind Searels’ offensive line.

A native of Trion, Ga., Searels played at Auburn in the mid-to-late 1980s before a brief career in professional football. Then, he returned to Auburn as a graduate assistant to get started in coaching in 1992.

In 2003, he joined Nick Saban’s staff at LSU where in his first season as the offensive line coach, the Tigers won the National Championship. Searels and Georgia coach Kirby Smart crossed paths briefly during the 2004 season as Smart was the defensive backs coach before continuing on with Saban to the NFL and Alabama.

Now, Stacy Searels is officially returning the Georgia. As Kirby Smart looks to build a staff capable of winning back-to-back titles, Searels has to be elated to join the Bulldogs.

More on Stacy Searels, Georgia Bulldogs

Moreover, Stacy Searels is replacing former Ole Miss coach Matt Luke as the Georgia offensive line coach. After announcing his intention to step down as the Georgia Bulldogs offensive line coach, Matt Luke released a statement about his decision earlier this month.

“Today, after much prayer and conversation with my family, I have decided to step away from coaching and shift my focus to spending more time with my family,” said Luke. “I want to thank coach Smart, his wife Mary Beth, and the entire Georgia family for an incredible past two seasons. I also appreciate coach Smart’s support in my decision today. He’s a great coach, and I’ll always cherish his friendship. It has been an honor of a lifetime to be able to win a national championship with this staff and these players, and something I will never forget.”

Luke cites family reasons as the main proponent of his decision to walk away from the game of football at this time. Although he is leaving his Georgia football family, for the time being, the team and head coach Kirby Smart thanked him for his work done with the offensive line. An offensive line unit that gave up just 16 sacks over their 15 games played. And in the college football semifinal against the Michigan Wolverines, they denied the potential number one overall draft pick in the 2022 draft, Aidan Hutchinson, and the Wolverines defense a single sack in the came.

On3’s Nikki Chavanelle contributed to this article.