HARRISONBURG — Today is National Signing Day, but Mickey Matthews won’t be hovering over a fax machine waiting to see which prospects have sent their inked National Letter of Intent.

The former James Madison coach, who spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Coastal Carolina, decided to retire in December after more than four decades in the profession.

“It’s a different life right now, and here it is the weekend before National Signing Day, and I’m up here watching wrestling tournaments,” Matthews, 64, said by phone Friday.

He’d normally be occupied ahead of college football’s most important day of the offseason with either visiting prospects or making that final phone call to seal a commitment, but not anymore.

Matthews and his wife, Kay, live and have planned to stay in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but visit the Valley frequently like they did this past weekend to see their daughter and grandchildren in Broadway.

“I wasn’t a very good dad because I was gone all the time, but I’ve found that I’m a good grandpa,” Matthews said. “I’m competing to be the best one.”

Since he stepped away from football there’s been more time for family, the new family business and relaxation. Matthews said he’s played more golf in the last two months than he’s ever played in his life.

“I made a decision about midseason that unless something came up that it’d be my last season,” Matthews said. “Like a lot of big decisions, you don’t decide that in one day, but certainly, I really felt like I’d had enough of the coaching business.

“I had been doing this for 42 years and I think that’s long enough for anyone to do anything.”

The pinnacle for Matthews was leading JMU to its first national championship in 2004. In 15 seasons (1999-2013) at the helm in Harrisonburg, he helped the Dukes reach the postseason six times. He was the Liberty Mutual FCS National Coach of the Year in 2008 and the AFCA I-AA National Coach of the Year in 2004.

Before being fired by the school, his staff at JMU also recruited players that turned into key contributors for the 2016 national championship team such as running back Khalid Abdullah, defensive end Andrew Ankrah, wide receiver Rashard Davis and wide receiver Brandon Ravenel.

“Recruiting took its toll when I was 35 years old, but I actually enjoyed it,” Matthews said. “I was recruiting Atlanta for Coastal and I really enjoyed that part of it.

“I always enjoyed visiting with the kids and the coaches, so I don’t know if that was part of it. But it’s a grueling profession and there’s a lot of time that if you’re going to be good at it, you have to spend a lot of time both recruiting and coaching. So I don’t know, I’ve told a lot of people that I got tired when I was young and I got tired when I was old, so I don’t know if there’s much difference.”

Matthews said developing players each day is what he’ll miss most about coaching.

He said in his two years between coaching at JMU and Coastal Carolina while working in television, he still had an itch to get back into the game for that reason.

“People always ask me what is it that I love about college football? And I say, ‘It all,’” Matthews said. “I loved the recruiting. I loved the Monday morning in-season meetings where you’re getting a game plan together, I enjoyed spring practice as much as anything we did. I just loved it. I like competing in recruiting to get players, so I think the Coastal Carolina experience helped me get it out of my system.

“But what I’ll miss is getting a player as a freshman, a scared freshman, and seeing him develop in four or five years to where he graduates and has some confidence, has a degree and is a total different person from when he walked in the door. I really will miss that tremendously.”

As for now, Matthews said he will focus on helping Kay and his son, Clayton, with their gourmet donut shop Peace, Love and Little Donuts which the three opened on Sept. 1 in Myrtle Beach.

“We purchased a franchise,” he said. “And I wasn’t really doing a lot to help, so I thought they could probably use some help with that.

“At this point, all I’m allowed to do is this custodial work. I sweep the floors and clean the tables. Clayton doesn’t allow me to do anything else, but it’s an interesting business and we’ve been doing it for five months now and we’re having a lot of fun with it.”

To stay involved with football, Matthews said he’d like to get back into television and radio.