Scott Lakatos, Georgia’s defensive backfield coach since 2010, has resigned his position on the Bulldogs’ football staff.
Lakatos, 49, would say only that he is leaving for “personal reasons.”
“Let’s leave it at that — personal reasons,” Lakatos, 49, said in a short telephone interview Thursday night.
Asked if he had a choice about leaving, Lakatos said, “oh, yeah, of course. Just leave it at personal reasons. There’s no story here.”
That was the only reason given in a short news release sent out by UGA on Thursday night.
“We are very appreciative of Scott’s contributions to our program over the last four years, and I have a great amount of respect for him as a coach and as a person,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said in the release. “We wish him and his family nothing but the best.”
Lakatos, 49, was hired by defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and came to Georgia from Connecticut right after the Huskies defeated South Carolina in the 2010 Papa John’s Bowl.
In 2011, Lakatos coached All-American safety Bacarri Rambo and Paul Hornung Award winner Brandon Boykin on what ended up being a national top-10 defense. But Georgia’s pass defense struggled the past two seasons, most notably in 2013, when the Bulldogs finished 60th in the nation and sixth in the SEC in passing yards allowed (227.4 pg) and 10th in the conference in pass-efficiency defense.
Georgia’s defensive backfield was extremely young this season, with four first-year starters and four freshmen earning starts. But they gave up some devastating pass plays, including a 73-yard winning touchdown to Auburn with 25 seconds remaining and a 99-yard TD to Nebraska in the Gator Bowl.
Lakatos is a native of Long Valley, N.J., and played college ball at Western Connecticut. His 20-plus year coaching career had all been spent in the Northeast — the last nine at Rutgers and Connecticut — before he joined the staff at Georgia.
Asked if he intended to head back north, Lakatos said, “Don’t really know at this point in time.”
