AD eager to help build on success
Football, basketball both start in top 10 for 1st time since 2013
GAINESVILLE Sporting an offseason beard, Scott Stricklin kicks back on the sofa in his office on a Friday afternoon looking relaxed, content and confident.
Stricklin has plenty of reasons as he nears his fourth anniversary as Florida Gators athletic director.
For one, Stricklin recently was invited to play Augusta National Golf Club — home to the Masters each April — a summer after he teed it up at Pine Valley, which is ranked the nation’s No. 1 course by Golf Digest.
“I get to play at places that are nicer than my game,” he quipped.
Stricklin’s Gators — the 49-year-old’s primary focus — are looking considerably better than his golf game and doing well in the rankings, too.
This time a year ago, the football team hoped to rebound under first-year coach Dan Mullen following a four-win season — and responded with 10 victories. Basketball coach Mike White’s squad won a game in the 2019 NCAA Tournament for the second straight year but ended the season out of the top 25 before undergoing a massive roster overhaul and bringing in a top-10 recruiting class, along with coveted transfer Kerry Blackshear Jr.
Now the school’s most visible and popular programs will enter their seasons both ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 2013.
Stricklin would not make any predictions, other than the future is bright in each sport due to Mullen’s and White’s vision, leadership and coaching ability.
“I think we have a really good trajectory,” Stricklin said. ”I don’t know what that is going to mean, where the season ends up for either of them. It’s kind of like your stock portfolio; you can have a
bad day in the market but it doesn’t mean you have a bad portfolio. If you have a good mix of stocks in there that have good fundamentals to them, you’re going to be OK in the long run.
“I feel like we have really good leadership in those programs.”
The football team’s fortunes will begin to unfold in three weeks when Mullen’s Gators take center stage against in-state rival Miami at 7 p.m. on Aug. 24 in Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. The ESPN-televised game will be the only one played on the mainland — Arizona visits Hawaii — and will begin college football’s 150th season.
The response of UF fans tells Stricklin all he needs to know about the program’s direction. The school received 29,000 requests for 21,000 tickets in an age where ticket surpluses too often are the norm.
“There’s a lot of people that want to be part of it,” Stricklin said. “I think it’s going to be fantastic. I’m looking forward to it. Gator Nation will be well represented.”
Whatever happens this fall, the buzz within Gator Nation is palpable at a time when the athletics department needs all hands on deck.
The never-ending arms race in college sports continues to escalate and accelerate.
UF completed a $15 million renovation of the softball stadium last winter, has broken ground on a $65 million baseball stadium that will be ready for the 2021 season and will begin work next June on the long-awaited $85 million stand-alone facility for football slated to open following the 2021 campaign.
Stricklin said more than 70% of the money has been raised for the projects. Recently, UF announced the booster club raised more than $60 million for just the second time.
“We’re right on track here,” Stricklin said. “We’ve had great response. We have people who have stepped up, and I think we have others that will. It’s been exciting.
“They see the immediate impact Dan and his staff had on this program. They understand how beneficial this project will be for the Gators.”
Many have wondered what has taken so long to build a stateof-the-art complex to house the football program, as so many of the sport’s top programs have done. The Gators are one of the nation’s elite as far as tradition, popularity and potential but lag behind in facilities.
The school did complete a $1.2 million overhaul of the football locker rooms last month that drew rave reviews.
“It’s a great day,” senior tailback Lamical Perine said. “I’m just happy to see this program increase so much. When I first got here it wasn’t that up to par, but now it’s a 10.
“It’s nice.”
Two weeks later, SEC rival
LSU made national headlines with a $28 million locker room featuring sleeping pods at each player’s locker. While some viewed the Tigers’ efforts as excessive, Stricklin understands the mentality given the competition to lure the best athletes and provide for the ones on campus.
“We want our kids to have nice things. We are trying to attract really talented young people,” Stricklin said. “We think the fact they have an opportunity to get an education from a top-10 public university should be a huge factor in the decision. But a lot of things go into those decisions, which includes how has this school invested in the space I’m going to be using when I come to school here?”
Yet at the same time, when a school put resources into a locker room like LSU’s, criticism is sure to follow.
“It’s not limited to athletics. A successful enterprise at some point decides to invest in their infrastructure and in college athletics we’re generating revenue … to reinvest in our facilities,” Stricklin said. “If you don’t do it, you get criticized. What’s happened around here, Florida’s been criticized in the past because there’s a thought that they have not invested like they should in facilities. It’s one of those you’re not going to make everybody happy. Someone is going to be critical either way.
“You have to make decisions that you think are best for your program long term.”
The Gators’ stand-alone will have its own amenities and selling points for players. Delayed a year and with a price tag that already has grown by $20 million, Stricklin said it will be worth the wait and extra cost.
“I think we’ll have one as nice as any in the country,” he said. “I would easily trade for long-term benefit over haste. I don’t want to be hasty. I would rather focus on what is going to be the long-term best thing.
“Let’s do it right.”
Once the football complex is in place, Stricklin will turn his full attention to the biggest project of all — looking to bring The Swamp into the 21st century.
One of college football’s most storied stadiums continues to create one of the game’s premier game-day atmospheres.
“I always thought that before I even came to work here,” Stricklin said. “I thought LSU and Florida create the best home-field advantage because when you’re an opponent you feel like the fans are right on top of you — it’s loud and it’s intimidating.”
The Swamp also is showing its age when it comes to seating, concessions, restrooms and other necessities in an age where fans have the option to stay in their air-conditioned homes and watch their big-screen TVs.
”There’s some things we can do from a fan-comfort standpoint,” Stricklin said. “I don’t think we’re where we need to be. That’s kind of where we’re going to put a lot of our focus.”
Big changes to the Swamp remain years away. Yet Stricklin and his staff have begun to kick around ideas among themselves before eliciting outside perspectives.
“It’s still conceptual at this point,” Stricklin said. “But we’re getting closer to the point where we start having a better idea of what direction it’s going to go.”
On the other hand, Stricklin has a good idea where the Gators are headed entering a new year in athletics. The ascent is never easy, but Stricklin to plans to enjoy the view.
“I get a lot of people tell me how excited they are — how much they are looking forward to this year. That’s where you want to be,” he said. “It’s hard to maintain that; it’s hard to keep that balloon in the air. But you want to do it as long as you can.
“The programs that are really successful figure out a way to do that.”