SCOTT STRICKLIN IS KILLING US SOFTLY
Written by Ian Gibson / December 1, 2025
Legendary Florida announcer Mick Hubert would call the Swamp an insane asylum for the roar of the crowd during big plays. But now his quote seems to be ringing more in truth than hyperbole, as they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And Athletic Director Scott Stricklin needs to be fitted for a straight jacket.
This recent disaster of a coaching cycle has made it beyond obvious that Stricklin has done a horrible job as AD at Florida, especially asset management. What’s even more unacceptable is this isn’t the first time he’s whiffed on landing a needed splash hire. Cast your minds to the end of 2021. LSU hired Brian Kelly who was the winningest head coach in Notre Dame history. USC stole Lincoln Riley in the middle of the night as one of the biggest splash moves in recent memory. Miami as well got their coveted prize in bringing Mario Cristobal out of Oregon to the Hurricanes.
While Florida elected to hire a coach with no proven experience in winning big games or handling a program in the SEC. Hindsight being what it is now, many of these didn’t pan out or turn into dynasty starters as expected but it looked from the outside that Florida didn’t want a big name coach or the other way around. Fast forward to this most recent carousel and once again it’s déjà vu. LSU got their prize in Lane Kiffin (more on him later). Virginia Tech got James Franklin to help right a reeling program. While coaches on Florida’s radar either said no or signed extensions. This resulted in the most underwhelming hire in recent memory for a program like Florida.
Florida desperately needed a good hire. Maybe more than any other program in the country. The Gators were mediocre at best and failures at worst. Slipping further and further away from returning to the heights the team reached in the 90s and 2000s. Stricklin, who during the beginning of the search, either through himself or the boosters, said that proven Power Four coaches are the only priority. Clearly for the fanbase and for the program it was Lane Kiffin or bust. Even if Kiffin didn’t decide to come, which was never a for sure conclusion, it was evident that a Power Four coach was a necessity. The names of Georgia Tech’s Brent Key and Washington’s Jedd Fisch as the backup options were not ideal, too anyway, but would have been far more impressive and desirable hires.
For Stricklin and the amount of toxicity that was seen in the Swamp booing Napier after miserable loss after miserable loss. One would think he would do everything he could to avoid making a similar hire. Yet against all odds, Stricklin hires another Group of Five coach from Louisiana with the same warning flags: no record in winning big games, or being able to handle an important program like the Gators. Jon Sumrall, in his four years as head coach of Troy and Tulane, took them to conference championship appearances every season.
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Indeed impressive, but he has lost to every power four team he has played and has shown to lose some very embarrassing matchups such as a blow out loss to UTSA during this current season. Nothing in his resume screams that he will be a coaching juggernaut at Florida. This instead are the warning signs of continued mediocrity and failure the Gators have slipped into.
Here's what makes it even worse and yet another indictment of Stricklin’s incompetence. All of this could have been avoided if Stricklin had done the most obvious move last season and fired Napier after the Texas A&M loss. Where boosters were in position to pay up the needed buyout and were aiming dead red on the dream hire of Lane Kiffin. However, Stricklin stepped in and would not fire Napier. Had he done the right thing, Kiffin would have finished his first season as head coach of the Gators right now. How that might have gone is anyone’s guess, but it would have been a hire that finally showed Florida was serious about wanting to win. Instead, Florida is left sitting and dreaming of what could have been thanks to Stricklin’s baffling belief in thinking that Napier, through three years of proven ineptitude at that point, would magically turn the program around.
For Gator fans and for sure the many fooled boosters, it is what they all feared the end result would be after firing Napier. Completely airballing a second straight hire and having to settle on another unproven coach to end up in essentially the exact same spot they are trying to get out of. The only solace is that this has to be Stricklin’s last chance to prove he can successfully run the athletic department at Florida. If Sumrall does as what is predicted and is another bust at Florida, there is no conceivable way Stricklin should be allowed to make a fourth hire. Maybe at that time there could be someone in charge that knows just what the program needs and has the ability to make the big moves. For a fanbase that has been through one of the worst four year stretches in the program’s history, they deserve much better than another lame duck hire in Jon Sumrall. Even more so… they deserve better than Scott Stricklin.
