The Scott Stricklin Thread

[AlexDaGator]

I've been saying for a long that that our return to elite status begins with firing Scott Stricklin and rebuilding the AD's office and the UAA.

I did not write this article, but I could have. I do not trust Stricklin to choose a football coach or fix our administrative problems.

The Florida Gators have more than just a Billy Napier problem

Why a UAA housecleaning is long overdue​

But Foley had his blind spots, too, particularly when it came to investing in UF’s football program. Because of Steve Spurrier’s unique success in the early 90s, the Gators ran their athletics department with an arrogance that they didn’t need things like an indoor football facility.

Florida was slow on change — with facilities, support, fund-raising and more — and Meyer (with a loaded roster and an incredible coaching staff) only further emboldened UF’s hubris with his two national titles.

The ‘Gator Way’ became a holy-than-thou rebuttal.

A dozen years (and four football coaches later) after Meyer abruptly resigned from Florida in 2010, Billy Napier was sitting at the same desk Meyer once occupied, with the same curtains and the same carpet inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Florida’s football players were making the same long walk across Gale Lemerand to the practice field before the school finally opened the Heavener Complex before the 2023 season — many years in the making, and still many years too late.

“Nothing changes around here,” a UF head football coach once said.

Foley retired in 2016, but he maintains an emeritus title with the university. The problem is the Ghost of Foley continues to walk the hallways of the athletic department. Scott Stricklin is now the AD at UF, but a large swath of Foley’s inner circle and top lieutenants remain in power positions within the university.

These are not bad people, but they’ve long had bad ideas. The Peter Principle doesn’t just apply to Napier. There’s a leadership vacuum and total staleness within the athletics department that has created the very outcome of having to hire four football coaches — now eying a fifth — in 12 years.

It’s been an endless cycle of rut. It was a surprise to no one in the know in Gainesville that Florida didn’t have it’s NIL house in order or was a step slow attacking the transfer portal.

If Florida is serious about wanting to produce a championship program again, they have to make serious changes above simply who is just roaming the sidelines.

It’s time to move on to a new era. A clean slate.

Stricklin shouldn’t be allowed to hire a third football coach, but it’s not just him. The entire UAA needs a housecleaning.

The Gators will have a new football coach in 2025. But Lane Kiffin, Eli Drinkwitz or Jedd Fisch won’t suddenly fix what Napier could not.

A total reckoning within the UAA is long overdue.

Alex.

 

[g8tr72]

Great thread. Started off promising and appeared to be actually profitable to Gator Nation but, like the Stricklin and Napier hires, ultimately grossly disappointing, overrated, overcompensated.

Time to drain the UAA swamp too.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Alex I number of us could have written this article, hell it could have been written a number of times since 2010.

 

[g8tr72]

I just noticed that the upcoming UCF game has been appointed - "UF Faculty & Staff Appreciation Day"

I vote the pregame festivities should include both Stricklin and Napier being honored before the game as FORMER members of the faculty.

 

[gatorb]

I personally don't care whether Stricklin is fired. Credit to Stricklin for shoveling massive amounts of money into the football program, something we've been clamoring for a very long time.

Just don't let him (or any future AD) hire any coach ever again (except for sports that don't matter). Let the boosters do it...boosters who are footing the bill, work in the real world where results matter, and can sniff out success like a hound sniffs out a raccoon.

 

[78]

Any thread named after Stricklin is going to overpromise, underdeliver and be stickied two minutes before it's put out to pasture.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I personally don't care whether Stricklin is fired. Credit to Stricklin for shoveling massive amounts of money into the football program, something we've been clamoring for a very long time.

He did not shovel massive amounts funding into the football program.

He made a massive spending program and diverted all that money to the other sports first. Allegedly will get football upgrades in 2029, maybe. Just like in 2011 we were going to get a practice facility in 2015.

And honestly how much credit should we give him for putting some money in football, the only sport that actually makes money? I know this is a change for what we've been dealing with ANY other person we might hire would immediately recognize the problem we have always had.

 

[AlexDaGator]

I personally don't care whether Stricklin is fired. Credit to Stricklin for shoveling massive amounts of money into the football program, something we've been clamoring for a very long time.

Just don't let him (or any future AD) hire any coach ever again (except for sports that don't matter). Let the boosters do it...boosters who are footing the bill, work in the real world where results matter, and can sniff out success like a hound sniffs out a raccoon.

You may get your wish (sorta).

Shane Matthews saying the boosters will be picking the next coach, not Stricklin.

Now sure what that means exactly. Probably they'll hire a search firm and then have some input in the final decision.


Alex.

 

[AlexDaGator]

He did not shovel massive amounts funding into the football program.

He made a massive spending program and diverted all that money to the other sports first. Allegedly will get football upgrades in 2029, maybe. Just like in 2011 we were going to get a practice facility in 2015.

The Foley stink runs deep.





Alex.

 

[Spurffelbow833]

Foley retired in 2016, but he maintains an emeritus title with the university. The problem is the Ghost of Foley continues to walk the hallways of the athletic department. Scott Stricklin is now the AD at UF, but a large swath of Foley’s inner circle and top lieutenants remain in power positions within the university.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Just don't let him (or any future AD) hire any coach ever again (except for sports that don't matter). Let the boosters do it.

The boosters doing it is how Auburn became such a hilarious shiiit show.

 

[AlexDaGator]

Alex I number of us could have written this article, hell it could have been written a number of times since 2010.

Alex.

 

[Spurffelbow833]

The boosters doing it is how Auburn became such a hilarious shiiit show.

 

[FireFoley]

The boosters doing it is how Auburn became such a hilarious shiiit show.

On line 1 and would like to have a word,

 

[backstop13]

it's the only way to be sure...

 

[Wuerffel4Pres]

it's the only way to be sure...

Sometimes I wish there was a LOVE emoji reaction. This is most definitely one of those times.

 

[GatorScotty]

So I was told earlier this afternoon that one dynamic in play with Stricklin and how soon he'd be fired is his work on the stadium project. If he was fired anytime soon, it would set things back regarding that project considering he's been working directly with the firm that's putting together options for the project. This isn't a priority for many of us Bulls or even the UAA. But it's definitely a notch Strick wanted to have on his belt prior to retiring. This was still a few years away as any type of large scope project like this takes major planning. I was actually finishing up a proposal to present to the UAA in the coming weeks that would be a massive stadium project. An actual new Swamp, built on the land that the Mark Bostic Golf Course is currently on (many details I'll post in this thread if anyone is interested). I had actually let a few of my fellow Bulls and UAA staff know that I wasn't interested in sitting down with Stricklin to present this to him because I truly felt his time at UF had ran its course and that change from the top was imperative and necessary during this current school year. He doesn't deserve to play a role in any stadium project, much less our next FB coach hire.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I didn't say you hire a stupid AD.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

So I was told earlier this afternoon that one dynamic in play with Stricklin and how soon he'd be fired is his work on the stadium project.

The 2029 project?

Next quorstion: Is that the job of THE AD? Shouldn't that be an AAD or likely lower handling the nuts and bolts of stuff like that? He comes out of sports information. I think several of them do. One is an attorney who apparently never won a case. Are any of them really capable at all, beyond "this looks prettier to me"?

Why do we spend so much money in the ADs office, most make close to a mill, yet don't have any actual expertise in there? There isn't a single one who knows football either.

 

[revgator]

So I was told earlier this afternoon that one dynamic in play with Stricklin and how soon he'd be fired is his work on the stadium project. If he was fired anytime soon, it would set things back regarding that project considering he's been working directly with the firm that's putting together options for the project. This isn't a priority for many of us Bulls or even the UAA. But it's definitely a notch Strick wanted to have on his belt prior to retiring. This was still a few years away as any type of large scope project like this takes major planning. I was actually finishing up a proposal to present to the UAA in the coming weeks that would be a massive stadium project. An actual new Swamp, built on the land that the Mark Bostic Golf Course is currently on (many details I'll post in this thread if anyone is interested). I had actually let a few of my fellow Bulls and UAA staff know that I wasn't interested in sitting down with Stricklin to present this to him because I truly felt his time at UF had ran its course and that change from the top was imperative and necessary during this current school year. He doesn't deserve to play a role in any stadium project, much less our next FB coach hire.

The would actually be a good place for a new stadium. Isn't the grading massively steep down that road?