While I know some hold a less favorable opinion of them, I think the Gator Nation Football Podcast is the best in the business when it comes to discussing the more technical, tactical, and strategic aspects of Gator football. They just did an interview with AD Scott Stricklin where they tactfully pressed him on a lot of the popular questions and criticisms levied his way.
There's lots of interesting information, so I highly suggest listening to all of it yourself, but here are some (sloppily) transcribed highlights:
- In response to whether NIL has effectively ended the true amateur spirit of college athletics, he suggests that happened long before NIL, perhaps as far back as the 1950s when schools started giving out scholarships for athletics.
- Thinks schools will also likely be sued for limiting scholarships per sport (gives baseball as an example), for arbitrarily limiting scholarship/compensation.
- Believes college sports will move towards roster limits rather than scholarship limits, and football rosters will likely be between 85-130 paid players. Suggests walk-ons as we know them will also go away.
- When asked whether college football will become a minor league for the NFL and said he doesn’t fully understand the NFL model. Suggests the only value the NFL would want from college is just access to talent without having to invest in the player development.
- When asked about where Florida ranks in terms of NIL’s resources, Stricklin said he doesn’t know for sure and only goes by what his coaches tell him...but that he says “What Florida Victorious provides for our athletes is very competitive with the top schools in the country.”
- Says if you took the top 15 brands in college, they are all within 5% of each other. Doesn’t think there are any outliers like the Yankees significantly outspending others.
- Suggests that teams like Georgia being dominant in recruiting is mostly due to their on-field success and not NIL.
- But then also asserts that on-field success doesn’t have a significant impact on NIL fundraising. Says they have not seen that.
- Indicates to fans that when we lose out on a top recruit due to NIL, it’s not necessarily that we couldn’t afford them, we just have different values and decided to allocate our NIL resources differently.
- Responds to popular criticism that Stricklin and UAA would rather fundraise for facilities versus NIL: “We understand NIL is very important.” And points out how they talk about Florida Victorious at games with videos on the jumbotrons and that he has been on phone calls about NIL. Has a call with FV once a week. Seems pretty defensive. Says they often direct boosters to FV.
- Also states there are “There’s no current facilities projects. All of our fundraising efforts for the last 24 months, I’d say 80%, have been focused on NIL.”
- In response to criticism that booster money would be better spent on NIL payroll than facilities, he suggests that the “marketplace” (basically boosters) have different “wants.” Says “People who are going to give to a stadium project by and large are probably not interested in the NIL piece. But now, some of the NIL people may want to do both.” Effectively stating that the stadium project does not draw from potential NIL funds.
- They recently completed a study in terms of what fans want from the stadium renovation.
- Tenet for the new stadium is “do no harm” and identify the parts of the stadium that are untouchable, like the Green Monster, at Fenway Park, and believes that element for BHG is the tight and vertical proximity of seats around the sidelines. Also thinks the wing walls are something he wants to keep.
- Says he envisions most of the lower bowl remains bleachers. Says other places have got rid of them and lost the energy, and they don’t want to hurt the atmosphere. Suggests he decided not to put the fancy club seats behind the plate, Condron Family Ballpark for that reason. Doesn’t foresee chair backs at the 50-yard-line.
- Beyond the lower bowls, he wants to find other ways to offer different “products” for fans to choose from.
- Addressing whether the Jacksonville Jaguars would come play in Gainesville during their stadium remodel, it seems like we are very interested and have had them in for a meeting, but that the Jaguars are also exploring other options like Orlando.
- Scott ponders whether a major soccer game could be played in the Swamp.
- Turns to his PR talking points in regard to the difficult schedule and says again that the Gators always play a hard schedule and that 2024 is not about the schedule, it’s about the Gators.
- Says there has been “the least amount of drama” from any football program in the off-season. Also had the highest GPA in history this last semester. Says nobody is in trouble and suggests it is because everybody is so focused.
- Says season ticket sales are away up due to the enthusiasm/optimism for the football program.
- When asked how he feels about the Gators traveling to Starkville and who he is pulling for (reminder, Stricklin and his wife both went to Miss State and his two daughters are students there), he says any time you go back to where you are from you want to win.
- Asked what type of rubric he uses to judge coach performance, suggests that it goes beyond just a win record. Talks about the culture and “drama” under the surface to determine how things are going.
- Gives 2023 as an example and says that we were two plays away from potentially winning 8 games, and though the win record wasn’t high, that he wouldn’t want to make “a really dramatic decision” on the future of a coach given that they were so close (paraphrasing heavily here).
- Why we keep playing Texas A&M over and over, and we rarely play schools like Auburn, Stricklin says, “It’s uncanny.” But says that he thinks the scheduling algorithm seems to give the teams on the geographic fringe of the SEC footprint seem to get the weirdest scheduling because they don’t have the same core of rivals. Says he has complained about it.
- Asked about the return of the “Gator Bait” song returning, Scott side steps it.
- James brought up how many chances an AD should get a chance to hire a coach before determining if the AD is the actual problem. He feels that as long as the AD is making the most probable hire they can, they should get "10, 20, 30" chances to get it right.
- But then brings up to Scott whether the AD’s fate is tied to the football coach, which he asked in such a graceful and tactful way. Scott says he thinks it depends on a lot of circumstances. He says it has never been addressed to him in that manner and can’t speak to it. But says that football is a really important enterprise at Florida and says it is really important that the football program is good. Points out that of the 21 scholarship sports, 11 of them finished in the top 5 in the country this year. 7 of them finished top 3 in the country. But does concede that nobody is mistaken about the importance of football at Florida. Says it drives everything.
- Brings up criticism to Scott about what happened with women’s soccer and basketball programs and whether Scott can manage a program or not. Stricklin says those situations were a “leadership issue” and that somebody outside of athletics looked at one of those situations and that it was just “personality conflict.” Says the more people you have, the more risk you have that somebody is in a situation they shouldn’t be in. Says “nobody bats 1.000).”
- Says anybody that is critical of him, he gets, because he criticizes himself for the same things. Says he has things he would love to go back and change in hindsight...but that “he tends to like himself,” so he doesn’t beat himself up.
- One thing he would tell younger stuff is to "block out the noise." Says he no longer looks at the mentions section of social media and doesn't really look at social media at all.
- Indicates he'd like to see gymnastics be successful again.
Listen below:
There's lots of interesting information, so I highly suggest listening to all of it yourself, but here are some (sloppily) transcribed highlights:
Florida & NIL
- Taking a wait and see approach on NIL landscape post-NCAA/P5 antitrust settlement.- In response to whether NIL has effectively ended the true amateur spirit of college athletics, he suggests that happened long before NIL, perhaps as far back as the 1950s when schools started giving out scholarships for athletics.
- Thinks schools will also likely be sued for limiting scholarships per sport (gives baseball as an example), for arbitrarily limiting scholarship/compensation.
- Believes college sports will move towards roster limits rather than scholarship limits, and football rosters will likely be between 85-130 paid players. Suggests walk-ons as we know them will also go away.
- When asked whether college football will become a minor league for the NFL and said he doesn’t fully understand the NFL model. Suggests the only value the NFL would want from college is just access to talent without having to invest in the player development.
- When asked about where Florida ranks in terms of NIL’s resources, Stricklin said he doesn’t know for sure and only goes by what his coaches tell him...but that he says “What Florida Victorious provides for our athletes is very competitive with the top schools in the country.”
- Says if you took the top 15 brands in college, they are all within 5% of each other. Doesn’t think there are any outliers like the Yankees significantly outspending others.
- Suggests that teams like Georgia being dominant in recruiting is mostly due to their on-field success and not NIL.
- But then also asserts that on-field success doesn’t have a significant impact on NIL fundraising. Says they have not seen that.
- Indicates to fans that when we lose out on a top recruit due to NIL, it’s not necessarily that we couldn’t afford them, we just have different values and decided to allocate our NIL resources differently.
- Responds to popular criticism that Stricklin and UAA would rather fundraise for facilities versus NIL: “We understand NIL is very important.” And points out how they talk about Florida Victorious at games with videos on the jumbotrons and that he has been on phone calls about NIL. Has a call with FV once a week. Seems pretty defensive. Says they often direct boosters to FV.
- Also states there are “There’s no current facilities projects. All of our fundraising efforts for the last 24 months, I’d say 80%, have been focused on NIL.”
- In response to criticism that booster money would be better spent on NIL payroll than facilities, he suggests that the “marketplace” (basically boosters) have different “wants.” Says “People who are going to give to a stadium project by and large are probably not interested in the NIL piece. But now, some of the NIL people may want to do both.” Effectively stating that the stadium project does not draw from potential NIL funds.
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Remodel
- Says the UF Board of Trustees has pushed them to make the stadium renovation a priority.- They recently completed a study in terms of what fans want from the stadium renovation.
- Tenet for the new stadium is “do no harm” and identify the parts of the stadium that are untouchable, like the Green Monster, at Fenway Park, and believes that element for BHG is the tight and vertical proximity of seats around the sidelines. Also thinks the wing walls are something he wants to keep.
- Says he envisions most of the lower bowl remains bleachers. Says other places have got rid of them and lost the energy, and they don’t want to hurt the atmosphere. Suggests he decided not to put the fancy club seats behind the plate, Condron Family Ballpark for that reason. Doesn’t foresee chair backs at the 50-yard-line.
- Beyond the lower bowls, he wants to find other ways to offer different “products” for fans to choose from.
- Addressing whether the Jacksonville Jaguars would come play in Gainesville during their stadium remodel, it seems like we are very interested and have had them in for a meeting, but that the Jaguars are also exploring other options like Orlando.
- Scott ponders whether a major soccer game could be played in the Swamp.
State of Gator Football
- When asked what things Gator Nation should be looking at this year to see if we’re on the right path, he says he “senses a lot of optimism” amongst the football program. Says we have a “really good football team” and thinks people will be surprised. He says he doesn’t have a win total in mind.- Turns to his PR talking points in regard to the difficult schedule and says again that the Gators always play a hard schedule and that 2024 is not about the schedule, it’s about the Gators.
- Says there has been “the least amount of drama” from any football program in the off-season. Also had the highest GPA in history this last semester. Says nobody is in trouble and suggests it is because everybody is so focused.
- Says season ticket sales are away up due to the enthusiasm/optimism for the football program.
- When asked how he feels about the Gators traveling to Starkville and who he is pulling for (reminder, Stricklin and his wife both went to Miss State and his two daughters are students there), he says any time you go back to where you are from you want to win.
- Asked what type of rubric he uses to judge coach performance, suggests that it goes beyond just a win record. Talks about the culture and “drama” under the surface to determine how things are going.
- Gives 2023 as an example and says that we were two plays away from potentially winning 8 games, and though the win record wasn’t high, that he wouldn’t want to make “a really dramatic decision” on the future of a coach given that they were so close (paraphrasing heavily here).
- Why we keep playing Texas A&M over and over, and we rarely play schools like Auburn, Stricklin says, “It’s uncanny.” But says that he thinks the scheduling algorithm seems to give the teams on the geographic fringe of the SEC footprint seem to get the weirdest scheduling because they don’t have the same core of rivals. Says he has complained about it.
- Asked about the return of the “Gator Bait” song returning, Scott side steps it.
UAA Leadership
- When it comes to firing a coach, is that solely the AD’s decision or does he have a conversation with others. Says he leans on some others in the UAA and other Gators outside the UAA that he values the opinion on.- James brought up how many chances an AD should get a chance to hire a coach before determining if the AD is the actual problem. He feels that as long as the AD is making the most probable hire they can, they should get "10, 20, 30" chances to get it right.
- But then brings up to Scott whether the AD’s fate is tied to the football coach, which he asked in such a graceful and tactful way. Scott says he thinks it depends on a lot of circumstances. He says it has never been addressed to him in that manner and can’t speak to it. But says that football is a really important enterprise at Florida and says it is really important that the football program is good. Points out that of the 21 scholarship sports, 11 of them finished in the top 5 in the country this year. 7 of them finished top 3 in the country. But does concede that nobody is mistaken about the importance of football at Florida. Says it drives everything.
- Brings up criticism to Scott about what happened with women’s soccer and basketball programs and whether Scott can manage a program or not. Stricklin says those situations were a “leadership issue” and that somebody outside of athletics looked at one of those situations and that it was just “personality conflict.” Says the more people you have, the more risk you have that somebody is in a situation they shouldn’t be in. Says “nobody bats 1.000).”
- Says anybody that is critical of him, he gets, because he criticizes himself for the same things. Says he has things he would love to go back and change in hindsight...but that “he tends to like himself,” so he doesn’t beat himself up.
- One thing he would tell younger stuff is to "block out the noise." Says he no longer looks at the mentions section of social media and doesn't really look at social media at all.
- Indicates he'd like to see gymnastics be successful again.
Listen below:
Last edited:
