Scott Stricklin’s last marquee hire as an athletic director came in March 2015 while he was the athletic director at Mississippi State. He executed what amounted to a quiet coup. He’d been on the fence as to whether to keep Rick Ray as the basketball coach after three pedestrian seasons. Ray’s eventual firing was followed by a near-immediate announcement of Ben Howland’s hiring as head coach less than three days later.

Stricklin landing an established name like Howland proved a boon for the program, and he earned kudos in the industry for seemingly lining up a replacement ahead of time. It was executed deftly and quietly, a textbook example of a seamless coaching change.

Stricklin is now the athletic director at Florida, and his first major coaching hire there will unfold over the next few weeks as he attempts to replace Jim McElwain. Let’s just say this one won’t be perceived similarly. Florida announced it was parting ways with McElwain on Sunday night, after days of dysfunction and discord. There’s been persistent damaging media leaks, high-stakes legal wrangling and Florida’s biggest game of the year upstaged by self-induced drama. Florida’s bumbling weekend had all the trappings of a made-for-the-SEC-Network reality show.

Stricklin extended McElwain this past offseason and had been intent on keeping him until recently, despite the persistent offensive struggles. Everything changed with McElwain’s foolish “death threats” comment on Monday. But the way the ouster unfolded, including media leaks that undermined Florida’s game with Georgia, didn’t give off the vibe that this was a solo operation from the PR-savvy Stricklin.

The good news for Stricklin is that the search should be a simple one, as Florida remains an attractive job, despite its inferior football facilities that rank near or at the bottom of the SEC. We’ll assume Bob Stoops has shown no desire to coach again, as he’s consistently indicated that since he stepped down at Oklahoma. The most qualified candidate is Chip Kelly, who hasn’t appeared particularly interested in working in the SEC. But there’s a chance that the potential of coaching at a blue-blood program like Florida has changed that. Hiring Kelly, who went 46-7 at Oregon, would come with an extra administrative step because of his NCAA issues in Eugene that included a show-cause penalty that’s since expired.

View photos Would Chip Kelly consider taking the Florida job? Time will tell. (AP) More

The SEC passed a rule this spring that says any coach “who has either engaged in unethical conduct or participated in activity that resulted in a major infraction” must have the school’s president or chancellor “consult with the commissioner” about the hiring. The rule was passed to give administrators pause before hiring a coach or assistant with NCAA issues, and it’s unknown how a school would be perceived by the league office or its peers if it’s tested.

If Kelly isn’t a fit, it’s safe to categorize the Florida job as a two-horse race. The two most obvious candidates are UCF’s Scott Frost and Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, both of whom can address the ineptitude on the offensive side of the ball Florida fans have endured the past seven seasons. After watching Will Muschamp and McElwain put Neanderthal offenses on the field, Stricklin needs a coach with a pedigree that can satisfy a fan base spoiled by Steve Spurrier’s Fun ‘N’ Gun and Urban Meyer’s spread innovation.

So why Mullen or Frost? The timing and the tenor of the hiring hint first at Frost, who is the perceived leader and most likely to get the job. With Nebraska poised to fire Mike Riley and make a run at Frost, Florida’s pre-Halloween jettisoning of McElwain portends that they want an edge in the market. (Along with wanting to capitalize on the stupidity of McElwain’s “death threats” comments.) This is the same strategy former Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley used in outfoxing Notre Dame to hire Urban Meyer during the 2004 season.

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