LOS ANGELES – It seems sometimes like there is less loyalty in college football than ever. If a job offer includes a promotion and certainly a pay raise, coaches almost always seem to take it. Some coaches could have held positions at as many as 20 places by the time they retire.

That is what makes James Coley’s recent decision to remain at Georgia so interesting and unusual. The Bulldogs’ second-year wide receivers coach was offered an opportunity to join coach Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M as offensive coordinator. That would seem a no-brainer because Fisher is a friend and mentor of Coley’s and the offer would mean returning to a coordinator and play-caller’s position, which is what Coley was doing at Miami before he joined Kirby Smart’s staff.

Coley passed. He chose to stick with the Bulldogs.

Available for an interview for the first time since he joined Smart in January 2016, Coley explained his decision.

“You make personal decisions sometimes,” said Coley, a Miami native. “My family played a big part. I think Jimbo’s going to do a great job at Texas A&M. But I love the guy who’s the head coach here. I’ve known [Smart] since he was an assistant at LSU. I sat down and said to myself, I want to make a decision based on my family and where I am right now.”

Coley, 44, and his wife, Kenia, have two children, Brady and Madison. They live in the Five Points area of Athens, just a short walk from the football complex and Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall.

“My family loves Athens,” Coley said. “I love working for Kirby. I love where we’re at as a program. We love the university. And, you know, when you’re at Miami where I was and you make a move and you move your family from your hometown to a place they’re not used to, you watch them enjoying their new life and their new lifestyle; I have an appreciation for that. And you don’t want to make a decision where you’re unhappy because maybe your family is unhappy.”

The Bulldogs definitely are happy about Coley’s decision, and they certainly will reward him for his loyalty contractually after the season is over. But more important, Coley’s presence keeps together what is an impressive offensive staff.

In Coley, Georgia has coaching its receivers a man who has coordinated offenses, coached quarterbacks and called plays. That offensive brain trust also includes Jim Chaney, the current coordinator, veteran line coach Sam Pittman, who could coordinate the offense if he wanted to, dynamic recruiter and former high school head coach Dell McGee, and the young and energetic Shane Beamer – son of Hall of Fame coach Frank Beamer – coaching tight ends.

Nobody is more excited about that than Smart, who as a former defensive coordinator tends to direct most of his energy to that side of the football.

“James has done a tremendous job, and our offensive staff has done a tremendous job as a whole,” Smart said Friday during Rose Bowl Media Day. “There are a lot of ideas and input that come from a lot of people on that side of the ball. But, at the end of the day, there was no major change in our offense. There was major change in our ability to execute, block, run plays, throw the ball, catch the ball. A lot of that had more to do with it than just the X’s and O’s.”

And Coley has been a big part of teaching that. His receivers love him and say he has helped them immensely as the Bulldogs have slowly morphed from a run-dominated team into one that is much more balanced and explosive.

“I love playing for Coach Coley,” junior wideout Terry Godwin said. “He’s an amazing coach, but outside of football he’s an amazing guy. He’s a family man, and he treats us like we’re all his only son. So, for him to make that decision to stay, it meant a lot to us.”

Coley represents one-fifth of a diverse offensive staff. Chaney is from Missouri, Pittman from Oklahoma, Beamer from Blacksburg, Va., and McGee from Columbus, Ga. Meanwhile, Coley is a Cuban-American.

You’d barely know it, his players say, until it’s mealtime. Godwin laughed when telling the story of Coley first inviting all the receivers to his house for dinner. He told them they’d be having pork ribs. They just didn’t expect to see the whole pig on a spit.

“That kind of freaked us out for a minute,” Godwin said.

“I had to tell them, ‘You like ribs, don’t you? Well, here they are down here,’ ” Coley said, laughing. “ ‘If you want some pork chops I can show you where they are.’ But they were like, ‘Do we have to see the head, Coach?’ ”

The Bulldogs definitely are having a good time this season, and nobody wants to mess with the positive vibes. But with success comes opportunity.

Georgia already is having to deal with Kevin Sherrer leaving his position coaching outside linebackers to coordinate Tennessee’s defense. The Vols also made a run at defensive coordinator Mel Tucker as head coach, A&M went after Coley and surely other opportunities will come.

But, for one, the Bulldogs are especially happy Coley chose to stick around.

“I think it’s more the norm nowadays,” Smart said of Coley’s decision. “Lifestyle is more important than just title. I went through that at Alabama, where I passed a lot of opportunities up that maybe I could make a parallel move or maybe even an advancement, but I [stayed] for lifestyle because I enjoyed living where I was living, my family was happy and I was making money.

“More and more coaches are making more money than they ever expected to. So why do I have to move for monetary gains? I want to live somewhere where the best lifestyle is. I want to live somewhere where I can go to great schools and work for somebody I want to work for. I think that’s the recognition of that for James; that he wants to be successful, yeah, he wants to be a coordinator, yeah, he wants to be a head coach. But he also recognizes he’s at a point in his career where he’s got the flexibility to make some decisions that are best for his family.”

This one just so happened to work out well for Georgia, too.