Will Muschamp’s reign as Florida coach officially began Sunday, and he did not waste time making his first moves.
Muschamp announced Aubrey Hill (wide receivers coach) and Travaris Robinson (defensive backs) will be joining the Gators coaching staff, while D.J. Durkin (linebackers/special teams), Brian White (tight ends) and Stan Drayton (running backs) will return to Gainesville next season.
“I thought it was important to have some continuity in the staff — D.J., Stan and Brian bring that to the table,” Muschamp said in an article published on the University Athletic Association’s official website, Gatorzone.com.
Like most coaching hires, Hill and Robinson come in with ties to either Florida or its new head coach. Hill caught 86 passes for the Gators from 1991-94, and he then served as a graduate assistant at Florida for the next three seasons.
Hill comes to Florida after serving as the receivers coach at Miami for the three seasons. Prior to working for the Hurricanes, Hill coached receivers at Pittsburgh, Elon and Duke.
“Aubrey is obviously a Gator, and it’s always a plus when you have someone coach at their alma mater,” Muschamp said. “He understands the passion and the expectations here.”
Robinson, meanwhile, served as a student assistant and graduate assistant at Auburn from 2006-07, when Muschamp was the team’s defensive coordinator. In 2010, Robinson was responsible for the secondary at Texas Tech, which ranked 118th out of 120 division-1 teams is pass defense, allowing 293.77 yards per game through the air.
In the two seasons before heading to Texas Tech, Robinson worked at Western Kentucky and Southern Miss, respectively.
“This is a good start to our coaching staff and I hope to have some additional announcements this week,’’ Muschamp said.
Little mystery surrounds Muschamp’s biggest announcement: who will call plays next year? ESPN reported Friday that Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Charlie Weis had been offered the same position at Florida, and on Saturday the Associated Press reported that Weis had accepted the offer.
The UAA has not made an official announcement, but Chiefs coach Todd Haley told reporters Weis will in fact be in Gainesville for the 2011 season.
"Charlie Weis is moving on,” Haley said after the Chiefs’ 37-10 loss to the Raiders on Sunday. “He's going to go to the University of Florida as a coordinator.”
Haley added Weis’ son, Charles Joseph, wants to also become a football coach and will enroll at UF, where he will work for the football team in an unknown capacity.
Under Weis, the Chiefs’ offense ranked ninth in the NFL with 359.6 yards per game and 11th in scoring at 23.7 points per game. Prior to working for the Chiefs, Weis served as the head coach at Notre Dame, where he was fired after going 35-27 in five seasons.
Florida is expected to officially announce Weis as its offensive coordinator Monday.
Although not directly addressed, Sunday’s announcement means Florida assistants Teryl Austin (defensive coordinator), Zach Azzanni (wide receivers), Scot Loeffler (quarterbacks) and Chuck Heater (safeties) will not be retained. Austin and Azzani joined the staff before this season while Loeffler came to Florida from the Detroit Lions prior to the 2009 season.
Heater had served under Meyer since 2004, when he was a cornerbacks coach at Utah. Two other Florida assistants had previously announced their departures to become head coaches. Former offensive coordinator Steve Addazio will take over the Temple program, and former defensive line coach Dan McCarney is now in charge at North Texas.
