Georgia football brings back Stacy Searels to coach Bulldogs offensive line

Kirby Smart is turning to a seasoned offensive line coach to fill an opening on his staff.

Stacy Searels is returning to Georgia 12 years after he left to once again coach the line, the school announced on Monday.

It's the latest move for the veteran assistant coach who spent the last three seasons on Mack Brown’s staff at North Carolina.

He becomes the third former Mark Richt assistant to become an on-field assistant under Smart. A fourth — Mike Bobo — is an offensive analyst. Smart spent a season on Richt’s staff in 2005.

Searels, 56, worked closely with then offensive coordinator Bobo from 2007-10 on Richt’s staff.

"They're like brothers out there," then center Fernando Velasco said in 2007. "Everywhere you see Coach Searels, you see Coach Bobo. Everywhere you see Coach Bobo, you see Coach Searels.”

Searels’ Georgia offensive lines included Clint Boling, Cordy Glenn and Ben Jones.

Searels replaces Matt Luke who resigned a week ago after two seasons, citing wanting to spend more time with his family.

Baylor offensive line coach Eric Mateos also interviewed for the job, but decided to stay, according to BearsIllustrated, a 247Sports site.

Searels will bring a familiarity to a staff where Bryan McClendon has returned to coach the wide receivers and Todd Hartley is the tight ends coach.

Searels and Hartley were on Richt’s Miami staff from 2016-18 and Hartley was a Bulldog graduate assistant in 2009-10 when Searels coached the UGA line.

Searels, from Trion, Ga., was an All-American offensive lineman at Auburn and served as a grad assistant there. He then coached the offensive line at Appalachian State(1994-2000), Cincinnati (2001-02), LSU (2003-06), Georgia (2007-10), Texas (2011-13), Virginia Tech (2014-15), Miami (2016-18) and North Carolina (2019-2021).

“Stacy Searles, I had for three years at Texas. I thought he was great — he wasn't good,” Brown said when he hired Searles at North Carolina, according to UNC’s athletics website. “He recruited the number one class in the country with our offensive line there. …He's recruited Georgia for Georgia and he's recruited South Carolina. He's recruited Virginia for Virginia Tech so it was an easy hire in my mind.”

Smart and Searels were assistant coaches on Nick Saban’s staff at LSU in 2004 and Searels worked on the Tigers staff for two seasons with Will Muschamp, now UGA’s co-defensive coordinator.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football hiring assistant Stacy Searels from North Carolina