Surprising Coaching Connection AJ Hill's Uncle Made Before He Was Born

Quarterback's uncle played ball with his future position coach — and nobody connected the dots until Fayetteville.

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback AJ Hill during a spring practice. | Munir El-Khatib-allHOGS Images

Football's a small world.

You hear that phrase tossed around so much it starts to feel like something people say to fill the silence. Every now and then, though, a story comes along that makes you stop and actually think about how true it is.

That story's unfolding right now in Fayetteville, and it starts, of all places, on a football field at Valdosta State in the early 2000s.

Arkansas quarterback AJ Hill grew up in Warner Robins, Georgia. He went to Houston County High, drew offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Penn State and Colorado. Those are programs that don't throw scholarships around lightly.

He was rated the 17th-best quarterback in the country in the 2025 class by Rivals and became the highest-rated quarterback signee in Memphis football history. And yet, when the dust settled, he chose Memphis over all of it.

"I decommitted from Colorado for a couple of reasons and then that kind of slowed down my recruiting process," Hill said Wednesday. "Really just Florida and Memphis staying on me really hard.

"At the end of the day Memphis was just real and authentic. Coach Cramsey and Coach Silverfield gave me a plan and I really just stuck with it."

That decision set a chain of events in motion that'd eventually land Hill in a Razorbacks uniform.

It sounded Wednesday like continuing to work with the same people who recruited him, including offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey, wide receivers coach Larry Smith and coach Ryan Silverfield, who brought him from Memphis when he took the Arkansas job.

A Quarterback Battle That May be Really Close

Hill's arrived at a program where the starting job isn't being handed to anyone.

Silverfield's coaching staff has described the quarterback competition between Hill and KJ Jackson as a "coin flip," with both players splitting first and second-team reps throughout spring practice.

The coach himself used that term in his pre-spring practice briefing with the media back in February.

Hill's not bothered by it.

"It has been going good for me and KJ," Hill said. "At the end of the day it is a quarterback battle but we love each other and we love to compete with each other. Making each other better every day is going to have us ready for the season.

"At the end of the day it is just going to be based on who can make the throws and the correct reads at the right time."

That's a mature take from a player who hasn't played a college snap yet but has already spent a full season inside the same offensive system.

That familiarity with the scheme is a real advantage in a competition like this.

"I am real comfortable with the offense," Hill said. "I am not going to say I am a master of it yet, but I got it down pretty good. I am really just trying to hone in on the protection part of it and I got the routes, we just have to get the timing right on a couple of more things then I will be good."

He's also clear-eyed about what he needs to fix. Pre-snap reads are a strength. Pocket presence is the work in progress.

"One of my strengths is pre-snap reads, knowing where I want to go with the ball and how to dissect the defense to get the ball out of my hands very quick," Hill said. "Some things I need to work on I would say is my pocket presence. I can move a lot in the pocket when I don't need to, so staying calm and just trusting my protection more."

That's exactly the kind of self-awareness that coaching staffs love to see in young quarterbacks.

You can teach a guy to trust his protection. You can't teach him to recognize what he needs to learn.

A Goodbye That Wasn't Really a Goodbye

Now here's where this story gets really interesting.

When Memphis lost to NC State in the Gasparilla Bowl last December, Hill thought that was the last time he'd work with position coach Mitch Stewart.

Stewart had been a senior offensive analyst with the Tigers in 2024 before moving up to quarterbacks coach in 2025.

After the bowl game, with coaching futures uncertain everywhere, the assumption was that those two were done.

"After the NC State game we lost and of course we were saying our goodbyes because nobody knew what was going to happen with him specifically," Hill said. "Coach Trickett called and told me he was going to go to Maryland and then a couple of days later Coach Silverfield sent me a text asking about Coach Mitch and I said 'I love Coach Mitch.'"

Stewart had actually accepted a wide receivers coach position at South Alabama after the bowl season.

When Clint Trickett left Arkansas to become offensive coordinator at Maryland, a spot opened up. Silverfield reached out to Hill to get a read on Stewart — and Hill didn't hesitate.

"A couple of days later, he was like Coach Mitch is going to be the guy," Hill said. "As soon as I heard it I called Coach Mitch and he sounded like he was crying tears of joy so I am glad to be back with my guy."

That's the kind of coach-player bond that doesn't just happen. It's built over time, through daily work and genuine trust.

It turns out, that bond has roots that go a lot deeper than either of them initially realized.

focal points 🔍 pic.twitter.com/HDr69Koxej

— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) April 1, 2026

The Valdosta State Connection Nobody Planned

Here's the part of this story that nobody scripted.

Mitch Stewart played quarterback at Valdosta State in the early 2000s. Around that same time, Hill's uncle — Derrick Hill — was a defensive lineman for the same program.

The two were teammates. Decades later, Stewart ends up coaching Derrick's nephew at not one but two different schools.

Stewart's quick to set the record straight on his playing days, though.

"I know his family really well, but let me say this: I did not play, his uncle played," Stewart said. "I was a clipboard holder, I was a really good backup quarterback, like a really good one. You wanted to do a drill, I could do a drill. I was a freshman and he was an upperclassman."

Just in case nobody was paying close attention there, a lot of sarcasm was dropped in there. Stewart wasn't going to be the starter.

Stewart also made clear the family connection wasn't a recruiting pitch. It was just part of the fabric of who these two people are to each other.

"There was a relationship piece there, but I think overall it was not recruitment it was just conversations," Stewart said.

Hill echoed that. The Valdosta State connection didn't drive his decision to pick Memphis or to follow Silverfield to the Hogs.

It adds a layer of meaning to everything that's happened since.

"That did not play a role, but it just goes back to say with Georgia football this is all connections and relationships," Hill said. "Building those relationships over the past year and just to be with a guy like Coach Mitch from him playing with my uncle at Valdosta, it means a lot."

Sometimes the threads that connect people stretch back further than anyone realizes.

They simply wait quietly until the right moment brings them back together.

For AJ Hill and Mitch Stewart, that moment is now, and it's playing out on the practice fields in Fayetteville.