Florida AD Scott Stricklin’s comments on coaching search give Gators fans hope that he’s learned from his mistakes

There wasn’t a lot of faith to begin with, but Gators fans could have more moving forward.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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University of Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin addresses the media in a press conference on Oct. 20, 2025.
Alan Youngblood / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Florida Gators made a big decision on Sunday to move to fire head coach Billy Napier and work to find a new head coach. One of the biggest aspect of the decision to move on was focused on who was going to make the next hire.

Athletic director Scott Stricklin is going to be the guy making the hire, and this won’t be his first. This will be his third hire in the football program, as Dan Mullen and Napier weren’t able to make it as the head coach. There have been some questions about how he will approach the hire.

Scott Stricklin comments on process of making next head coach hire

When the firing of Napier was announced, Stricklin released a lengthy statement, which helped us understand a little bit on how the coaching search would be conducted.

“Making this decision during the open date provides our team valuable time to regroup, refocus, and prepare for the challenges ahead. The timing also allows us to conduct a thoughtful, thorough, and well-informed search for our next head coach. We remain fully committed to utilizing every resource available to identify the right leader to guide Gators Football into the future.

“I will conduct the search with a high degree of confidentiality to protect the privacy of those involved. The search will focus on the hiring of an elite football coach who will embody the standard we have at the University of Florida, and we will continue to provide all of the necessary resources for that coach, his staff and the players to be successful.

“Any time you conduct a head coaching search, especially for a high-profile sport like football or men’s basketball, you learn something. The lessons from past experiences will guide us through the work ahead.”

As expected, this is very well edited and written. It has the right buzzwords to make you feel comfortable about the hire, and shares what the process should be. However, you want to be able to hear it from the man himself, and that’s what the we got on Monday when he took questions from the media, including being asked if he would be solely responsible for the head coach hire.

“I’ll use every available resource,” said Stricklin. “And you know, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason, so I’ll be listening to a lot and taking a lot of suggestions and advice. And we do have a lot of access to a lot of information, so we’ll utilize all of that.”

The big thing here is that Stricklin seems to have learned a thing or two from his previous hires, and that’s a good sign for the future of the football program.

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