Florida Gators, WR coach Aubrey Hill part ways

By Adam Silverstein
August 3, 2012

Florida Gators wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Aubrey Hill has resigned from his position with the team, the school announced on Friday.

Hill, who has been twice named by Yahoo! Sports in connection with major recruiting violations in his former position with the Miami Hurricanes (Aug. 16, 2011 | July 20, 2012), resigned for “personal reasons” according to head coach Will Muschamp.

“I have too much love and respect for this program to become a distraction as I deal with some personal issues,” Hill said in statement released by the school. “I’m thankful for the opportunity to have worked with Coach Muschamp, a tremendous staff and great group of players. The future is very bright here and the University of Florida will always have a special place in my heart. Go Gators.”

Muschamp said in a release that he appreciated Hill’s decision to move on.

“Aubrey informed me he was resigning for personal reasons that have nothing to do with the University of Florida,” he said. “Aubrey didn’t want to be a distraction to our team and our football program and he thought it was best for him to move on. I appreciate Aubrey’s efforts and wish him the best moving forward. He will always remain a Gator.”

A Miami, FL native, Hill is a Gators alum who played for head coach Steve Spurrier from 1991-94 when Florida won their first three SEC titles. He served as a graduate assistant under Spurrier from 1996-98 and coached wide receivers at four stops over 12 years before being hired by Florida. He also served as the Hurricanes recruiting coordinator only for the 2010 season, his last year with the team.

Filling in for Hill at least temporarily will be offensive coordinator Brent Pease, who also coaches the Gators’ quarterbacks, and offensive graduate assistant Bush Hamdan. Pease previously coached wide receivers at Boise State from 2006-10, and Hamdan was a backup quarterback in his offensive system.

Muschamp will likely hire a new coach after the season.

Defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson is an early candidate to take over Hill’s recruiting coordinator duties; Florida already has 21 players verbally committed for the 2013 cycle as of press time and has an early jump on its 2014 class.

13 Comments

  1. cline says:

    what timing. Hope the GA and Pease can handle the double duty.

  2. Tractorr says:

    He has to do what he has to do, but shouldn’t he have figured this out more than a few days before camp starts?

  3. gatornutt says:

    Bad news for UF, much worse news from UM

  4. Tractorr says:

    Sure, I hope this doesn’t mess up recruiting.

    If this is not his decision hopefully they already have some candidates lined up.

    As much as this sucks for us in the midst of such a great recruiting year, this sounds horrendous for Miami that Hill has to resign his current job. He will probably spill everything he knows to make sure that he can coach again.

  5. John S says:

    Woah, well it’s not good news, but hopefully this doesn’t affect the current excellent recruiting class. You wonder what is in store for the Hurricanes. I have a feeling that Aubrey may not have been 100% honest with Muschamp regarding his UM experiences.

  6. gatorhippy says:

    Should have been gone at the start of last season IMHO…UF has worked too hard to keep its nose clean in compliance over the last 20 years to take the risk that Hill could screw things up with similiar practices he’s accused of at UM…

    Agree with Adam that the resignation rings hollow…he undoubtedly received the “quit or be fired” ultimatum…

  7. Gene Chizik says:

    What is with the constant cheating with these Florida schools.

  8. Ken (CA) says:

    This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. The only surprise I have is that it took so long. I just hope that none of the guys that he specifically recruited end up deciding to go somewhere else.

  9. Josh says:

    I hope this doesn’t mean any recruiting violations coming out of Gator Country any time soon!

  10. Daniel M. says:

    I agree with Adam that the “resignation” is just nice wrapping. I wonder if, aside from the UM investigation issues, if he got along well with Pease or if they were on the same page philosophically?

    I just hope Muschamp can get a replacement that will keep the WR recruiting ball rolling. This isn’t a killer timing-wise.

    Get it right Aubrey. Keep moving.

  11. Daniel M. says:

    And in the immediate wake of this, 4-star WR commit Rodney Adams has reportedly reopened his recruitment, according to Rivals.

    Wow, that was fast kid. Not sure you are Gator material.

  12. SWFlaJoe says:

    His opening up his recruitment might make room for Bailey. But I feel that that horse has left the barn.

    Opening up recruitment is not burning the decommittment ‘bridge’ so to speak. So maybe Coach Boom can keep him in the fold.

Leave a Reply to Tractorr Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux