As I wrote here last week, Scott Stricklin had a difficult decision to make. And he has made it. He is the new Florida athletic direcor.

Scott Stricklin, Mississippi State University athletic director.
Scott Stricklin, he’s a Gator now. Credit: Russ Houston/MSU

A search begins immediately for his successor at Mississippi State. And we will get to that in the days to come.

The University of Florida, floridagators.com specifically, asked me to write my observations of  Stricklin, whom I have known since he was a freshman student worker in the Mississippi State sports information department. You can read that piece here.

Stricklin did a splendid job at Mississippi State, his alma mater. He leaves the place far better than he found it for all the reasons listed in the column linked above.

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Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s in journalism, Rick has worked for the Hattiesburg American, Monroe (La.) News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger as a reporter, editor and columnist.

He was executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sports writer has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals and newspapers. Rick has authored four books and has been recognized 13 times as Mississippi Sports Writer of the Year.

He was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the Hattiesburg Hall of Fame in 2018. He received the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence in 2011 and was inducted into the University of Southern Mississippi Communications Hall of Fame in 2018. In 2000, he was honored with the Distinguished Mississippian Award from Mississippi Press Association. He has received numerous state, regional and national awards for his column writing and reporting.