South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Team dismisses Huggins
Sophomore defensive back had been accused of choking female tutor
GAINESVILLE — Florida Gators sophomore defensive back John Huggins has been dismissed from the football program, a UF spokesman confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday.
No further details were available about what specifically triggered Huggins’ dismissal.
Huggins has missed all of preseason camp while dealing with what Florida coach Dan Mullen has called a family issue.
Huggins was accused of choking a female tutor in October on the UF campus, according to records released by the school Tuesday, but Mullen said the player had already served a previously undisclosed suspension and the issue had been addressed. Huggins was not charged with a crime.
Huggins, a reserve defensive back and special-teams player last season, was one of the team’s breakout players during spring football workouts after he was involved in the October incident.
A female student who tutored Huggins told UF police the player had put his hands around her neck earlier in the day of Oct. 1 while they were meeting, according to police records. Huggins received a text message from another tutor telling him he had left behind his jacket.
When Huggins went to retrieve the item, the woman said she tried to hold onto his phone to ensure he return for tutoring. She told police Huggins routinely had left their one-hour sessions within 15 minutes.
Huggins, the report states, then placed both hands on her neck in an attempt to choke the tutor, who let him have his phone and leave. The woman, age 19 at the time, told police she still was able to breathe during the incident. She did not have any marks on her neck.
Huggins returned within minutes, as if nothing had happened, the report states. But he left five minutes later, declaring the session was over, the tutor told police.
The woman, whose name is redacted from the report, told her supervisor about the incident and met with UFPD, but she declined to press charges. The report states she was afraid of Huggins and no longer would meet him for oneon-one tutoring, but she would be willing to tutor him in a group setting.
Huggins was fourth Gator who has been linked to violence against women during the offseason.
Mullen said Tuesday he and his staff continually look to help players make sound decisions, but he also wants to have all the information before deciding how to handle a given situation.
“We do a lot of education on our team with that stuff. Obviously I’m a big anti-violence against women person,” Mullen said. “I’m also a person that I really want to have all of the information as I make decisions and what happens in different situations, and that’s one of the toughest deals. Because you want to give people an opportunity to have rights, like everybody else in the United States are supposed to. But everybody wants to see ‘what are we doing’ instantly.
“And we try to gather the facts. We spend a lot of time in educating our guys.”
Six months after the incident involving Huggins, first-year freshman quarterback Jalon Jones was accused of sexual battery of two female students during the early morning hours of April 6.
Jones was not charged and transferred from UF.
On May 6, Florida cornerback Brian Edwards was arrested for grabbing his longtime girlfriend by her neck as she attempted to leave their apartment. The junior from Miramar was not charged with misdemeanor battery due to insufficient evidence. Edwards recently transferred to Central Michigan to play for former UF coach Jim McElwain.
In each case, Mullen let the university investigation and legal process run their course.
“How many of them are actually charged?” Mullen said Tuesday.
Mullen support staff member Otis Yelverton also was arrested and charged April 22 with thirddegree felony cyberstalking a former girlfriend.
Yelverton, the football program’s assistant director of player personnel at the time, eventually was not charged by the Alachua state attorney’s office, but his employment at UF was terminated May 29.
During an interview earlier this month, UF athletics director Scott Stricklin applauded Mullen’s approach to discipline with his players.
“Dan does a really good job at creating accountability,” said Stricklin, who worked with Mullen at Mississippi State. “Sometimes accountability is negative consequences. When you talk about a coach and the way they run a program, the coach is not making the decisions of personal behavior for people. But when people make decisions that are poor, there are consequences that lead to accountability. I think Dan does a really good job with that.
“I have teenage daughters I have not figured out how to make the decisions for them. But you have to have clear understanding of what the accountability piece is if the decisions are poor. I know Dan does a good job of that.”