Gator Country

Aubrey Hill has resigned as receivers coach at Florida after being named in an investigation involving a rogue Miami booster.

An investigation into the University of Miami has resulted in the Florida football team losing its receivers coach.

The school announced Aubrey Hill's resignation on Friday morning via press release.

Hill, who coached Gators receivers this past season and served as recruiting coordinator, was named in an investigation involving a rogue Miami rogue booster. The booster, Nevin Shapiro, alleges Hill, a Miami assistant at the time, was present when he provided impermissible benefits to three recruits in 2008. One of those recruits was current Gators receiver Andre Debose.

Hill and Debose originally were named in a report by Yahoo! Sports Charles Robinson last August. Gators offensive lineman Matt Patchan also was named in a separate incident involving Shapiro. The three were cleared to stay with the team at that time, but another Yahoo! report recently added more corroborating information as far as Hill’s involvement.

“Aubrey informed me he was resigning for personal reasons that have nothing to do with the University of Florida,” said Florida coach Will Muschamp. “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 of luck moving forward. He will always remain a Gator.”

With the investigation ongoing, Hill decided to save the Gators from that distraction by resigning. After the first report surfaced, the University of Florida said in a statement that Hill was confident no wrongdoing had taken place while he was at Miami.

“I have too much love and respect for this program to become a distraction as I deal with some personal issues,” Hill said. “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.”

First-year offensive coordinator Brent Pease and former graduate assistant Bush Hamdan will coach receivers. Hamdan joined UF in January after working as tight ends coach at Sacremento State and as an intern at Maryland. He also played for Pease as a reserve quarterback at Boise State from 2005-08.

“I feel confident that coach Pease and coach Hamdan will step right in and provide the wide receivers with the coaching and teaching they need to be successful,” said
Muschamp. “Coach Pease was very involved with the wide receivers during the spring and has 10 years of experience coaching wideouts, including five at Boise State.

“Coach Hamdan played quarterback for Coach Pease at Boise State and is the most familiar of anyone on our staff with the terminology and philosophy of coach Pease’s offense. He played a key role in installing our offense this past spring. We feel like this is a good plan for the fall and I will make a decision in December about
moving forward.”

About the author

MikeCapshaw

Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting.

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