Scott Stricklin is the athletic director at Mississippi State. Stricklin earned his bachelor’s degree from MSU after working in media relations with the baseball team his final three years at State. Stricklin worked in the athletic department at Auburn, Tulane, Baylor and Kentucky before returning to Starkville to work as senior associate athletic director under former Athletic Director Greg Byrne.
Stricklin took over the MSU athletic director position in May 2010 and has over 21K followers on Twitter and over 2,300 followers on Instagram (@STRICKLINMSU).
Stricklin and his wife Anne have two daughters, Abby and Sophie.
 
Q: What do you enjoy doing away from your job with your family?
A: I have two daughters, so doing something with them, whether it’s going to a movie or hanging around the house watching TV together, or we have a fire pit in the backyard. Sometimes we’ll sit around the fire pit and roast hot dogs and marshmallows and hang out as a family. I also like to read. I can relax pretty good when I have my down time. I don’t have any trouble unplugging and just chilling for a little bit.
Q: What are your personal goals as Mississippi State athletic director?
A: I don’t know that I really have personal goals. I think successful leaders put others first and are servant-leaders. Servant leadership is something I think that is a real simple concept but is really hard to do. I’m not perfect with it by any means. I want our teams, coaches student-athletes and our staff to be successful, and I want our fans and alumni to feel really good about what happens on our campus through athletics, and I want to make Dr. Keenum proud. Those are my personal goals.
 
Q: Why do you make it a priority to interact with the MSU fans?
A: I think that’s an important part of the job, for better or for worse. The AD in the SEC is a pseudo-high profile position, almost like a pseudo-celebrity. It’s not the person; it’s the position, so it’s important that the people who love the university feel like that person is accessible. Sometimes people want to tell you an opinion, and it’s important to listen to those thoughts and ideas. Sometimes they just want to know that you care as much as they do. But I just think it’s important that they feel like whether it’s me or coaches or whoever, that we’re not closed off that we’re out among them and that they can get to us. Sometimes people have really nice things to say; sometimes they don’t like the way things are going, and that’s OK. At the end of the day, I like people who are passionate about Mississippi State. We may not agree, but if they’re passionate about Mississippi State, I’ll listen to them and hear them out. I think being out there and engaging people allows those conversations and communication to take place a lot easier
Q: Was the idea of retweeting Maroon Friday pictures your idea, and how are you so active on social media?
A: I can’t remember how the “tweet-me-your-picture-of-Maroon-Friday” happened. I think it was like most good things – it just kind of happened naturally. I think once we started doing it, we realized it would encourage more people to do it. The more you send those out, the more people see it and think it’s neat, especially when people are doing it from exotic locations like the Taj Mahal or Eiffel Tower… Social media is such a powerful tool to communicate and connect. That’s what social media does. It connects people in such a powerful way that you didn’t have that 10 years ago, or 20 years ago and it breaks down a lot of walls… You feel like you’ve got this connection that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.
 
Q: What do you look for when you recruit coaches?
A: I’ve always said there are four things I look for: I want people who have a great work ethic, people who are competitive – winning needs to be important to them – people who are intelligent and then people who know how to lead… You can’t read a book on John Wooden and be a good coach because it’s not as simple as taking what he did at UCLA 40 years ago and plugging it into what you’re coaching in this day and age. You’ve got to be smart to take what you’ve learned and then adapt it to the particular strengths and challenges of where you are and then adapt as you go along. To me that is one of the most undervalued pieces of successful coaches is they are smart… I think we’ve got a lot of smart coaches at Mississippi State, and I think that’s one of the things that has me excited going forward is they’re figuring things out and how we can compete and win championships in this league, and it’s going to be fun to be a part of that journey with them.
Q: When recruiting coaches, what aspects of MSU do you sell them on?
A: If they’ve done their homework, it helps because we’ve got so much to sell. Being in the SEC is a huge piece of it, but I always tell coaches Mississippi State is a place of opportunity, and it’s a place you’re going to come and you’re going to have the opportunity to compete against the very best and to win in the best league in the country but to be a part of a wonderful community and a wonderful state and a growing campus with a great leader like Dr. Keenum and a student body and alumni base that want you to be successful, and they’re going to support whatever you want them to do… I think one of the things that attracts people to Mississippi State is everyone here is accepted for who they are. It doesn’t matter what job your dad has. It doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive or where you came from. If you’re on this campus and you’re involved and engaged, people are going to respect and honor and love you. I think our student-athletes and our teams reflect that… I think what we represent as a university really ties into building winning programs.
 
Q: What is the best kept secret of an athletic director?
A: You can go in a team’s locker room after any game you want. There’s nothing like being around a winning locker room. The football team after every win sings the fight song in the locker room – I love that. During that song, I always think, “This is a pretty neat thing to be in here and sing this song with these guys to sing ‘Hail Dear Ole State’ with a bunch of kids who just got out there and had success after working their tails off.” That’s something I wish every fan could get in the locker room after the game and sing the fight song with the team.