Mississippi State looks to be on the hunt for a new athletic director as it was first reported yesterday by USA Today’s Dan Wolken that MSU AD Scott Stricklin is expected to be named AD by the University of Florida sometime today. 
  “Florida is expected to name Mississippi State’s Scott Stricklin its AD at a presser Tuesday, a person with knowledge tells @USATODAYsports,” Wolken tweeted Monday afternoon.
    The Florida job is open after AD Jeremy Foley announced he was retiring this past summer, which will take effect on Oct. 1. 
   The rumor ignited last week as reports began surfacing that Stricklin had been offered the job, with the Clarion-Ledger reporting Stricklin had been offered upwards of $1 million, which was more than double the around $500,000 he currently makes at MSU. 
  Stricklin, 45, graduated from MSU in 1992. He is married to Anne Stricklin, who is the daughter of MSU basketball legend Baily Howell. Stricklin has had great success at MSU and taken it to heights it has never seen before.
   MSU football has had one of, if not the, best runs in school history, as in 2014 they were the No. 1 team in the country for five straight weeks, the first time that ever happened in MSU football history. MSU also was national runner-up in 2013 and has an SEC regular season title under their belt from last season, and announced a new $40 million renovation to Dudy-Noble Field that is expected to break ground next year.
   He also presided over upgrades to MSU athletic facilities across the board, which included a $75 million expansion to Davis-Wade Stadium, a $6 million renovation of the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre and Softball Stadium Nusz Park and also the $2.2 million construction of the Old Waverly Golf Club for MSU golf. He was also named the 2015-16 Under Armor Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).
   Stricklin took over as AD from Greg Byrne in 2010 after Byrne took the AD job at Arizona. Byrne was hired after Larry Templeton stepped down after being AD at MSU for 21 years. Templeton started in 1987 and had the AD job till 2008.
 Templeton, Byrne and Stricklin were all hired from within MSU athletics. Looking within athletics there are potential candidates in Scott Weatherbee and Bo Hemphill, who are currently senior associate athletic directors. However, MSU athletics is in a much better situation than it was seven years ago, and the hire could come from anywhere.