Florida Football: Attempt to get questions for Scott Stricklin Q&A goes poorly

The vibes surrounding Florida football seem to depend on the day. One day people are celebrating the signing of a recruit, the next the knives are out looking to take no prisoners.

But one theme that seems to be brewing around Gator Nation is a general dissatisfaction surrounding Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, and an attempt to field some questions for a Q&A was met with vitriol emblematic of the dissatisfaction.

Florida Football: Careful What You Ask For

One the surface, there has been a lot to celebrate across the board within Gator Nation if one is to look past the win/loss record of football and men's basketball. Baseball was one win away from winning the national championship, gymnastics were national runner ups, track and field continues to rack up national titles, and even men's golf and tennis have joined in on being on top.

it's plenty of resume building bullet points that Strickling can point to and say "See, things are fine in Gainesville."

But if one were to dig just a touch deeper below the surface, things haven't exactly been sunshine and daisies in Gainesville since Stricklin arrived in 2016.

As Neil Shulman of In All Kinds Of Weather laid out last week, Stricklin has been largely asleep at the wheel for a number of issues surrounding Florida, including his seemingly hands off approach with NIL.

The more agreious of sins for Stricklin has been the hiring and subsequent firing of soccer coach Tony Amato and women's basketball coach Cam Newbauer, both of which were accused of player abuse and the latter of which was bordeline covered up for by Stricklin.

And as former Florida reporter and current On3 writer Thomas Goldkamp points out, any of the teams in Gainesville having success aren't from coaches that Stricklin himself hired.

So it is with all this backdrop and all this brewing frustration surrounding Stricklin that Gator radio announcer Sean Kelley posted on X an opportunity for Gator fans to leave questions that Stricklin would answer in an upcoming Q&A segment on the show Gator Tales.

Let's take a look at a sampling of the questions shall we:

"Ask him when he's leaving"

"Ask him why he hired 2 abusive coaches and then tried to cover it up? Ask him why thinks his job is safe? Ask him why his winning % as an AD is 25% lower than Foleys?"

"Ask him when is he going to pack his bags?"

"Ask him if he feels bad about covering up abuse in the women’s basketball program for us. Or how he feels about his hires having a 47% winning percentage. Either one will be good to know."

"Why is an 11-14 record over 2 years acceptable at the University of Florida?"

"Hey Sean. Please ask Scott if he'd like to relocate to Tucson? It's a great city with a lot of charm and great food!"

"Ask him what the expectations are for the University of Florida Football program. Is 6-6 or 7-5 acceptable now?

Ask him, how he’s managed to retain such a high paying job after failing over and over and over again.

Ask him what qualifies him for a raise last year…"

In fact, going through the 138 responses the thread got, about the only questions Kelley will be able to use on his show was "What is you favorite pizza topping"

We have said before that social media doesn't always reflect real life, but there is a definite shift in tone among those who have been paying attention.

And it's not unfair to state that there are real questions that need to be asked of Florida brass, not just layup questions that make for easy content.