Head baseball coach Scott Stricklin received an extension Thursday that will carry him through the 2026 season.

According to the Bulldogs’ skipper of eight years, there’s one major reason why he’s happy that’s the case.

“It’s recruiting,” Stricklin said. “We’ve got commitments from the 2023 and 2024 class, so it’s about recruiting, it’s about a commitment to a plan, it’s about staying consistent and moving forward and continuing to build.”

Stricklin—whose former contract was set to expire after the 2023 season—said being able to tell recruits he’ll be around is key.

“Obviously, with our recent success, that hasn’t been a concern. But it’s certainly something to be able to talk about now once you get that on the books,” he said. “You can sit there and say, 'Hey, this is the direction we’re going.' It makes things a lot easier when you can talk about it and not wait for someone to ask you.”

Unlike many coaches, Stricklin does not use an agent and didn't when working out the extension.

Prior to Thursday’s extension, Stricklin’s previous contract paid him $600,000 per year. Details of his new deal were not disclosed, although Stricklin said this latest extension wasn’t about personal gain.

“You don’t mess with happy. I was told that by a head coach a long time ago—don’t mess with happy—and we're thrilled and happy here,” he said. “The other thing it does, as far as trying to get every penny you can: I can say, 'Hey, we can use that with our staff. We can use that with future plans and development with our stadium.' Those are things that we all want to do, and I don’t want to be in the way of that.”

In a statement released by UGA, athletic director Josh Brooks had the following to say about the timing.

“We've seen enough of how Coach Stricklin has developed this program on and off the field to know what we wanted to do, which was lock him in 'til 2026,” Brooks told UGASports. “We had the opportunity to do so, so we took it.”

Stricklin said the decision was a mutual one. He'd actually spoken about the possibility for an extension when Brooks was still serving as interim AD.

“We were both on the same page. When Josh was the interim, we sat down and talked about it. He asked me my thoughts, and I said, 'Josh, this is a no-brainer,'” Stricklin said. “I told him the same thing I told Greg (former AD Greg McGarity). I don’t have an agent. I’m not ever looking to go anywhere else. If I had an agent, he'd be mad at me for telling you that. Josh believes in what we’re doing; he’s seen what we’ve done and how we interact with the other staffs and everyone in the department.”

Georgia’s 39 SEC wins the past two full seasons ranks tied for first in the league.

The 2019 Bulldogs posted a school record 21 SEC victories and finished with 46 overall wins, the third most in school history. The 2018 and 2019 seasons saw Georgia play host to NCAA Regionals as a national seed. The No. 4 national seed in 2019 was the best ever for the Bulldogs.

During Stricklin’s tenure, there have been 100 selections to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and 28 members on the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll. Last season, pitcher Emerson Hancock became only the fourth student-athlete in Georgia history to be a first team Academic All-American and a first-round draft pick. In 2019, Keegan McGovern was the SEC Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Under Stricklin, a total of 32 Bulldogs have gone on to play professional baseball, including a pair of first-round selections. There have been four Bulldogs to earn All-America honors and seven tabbed Freshman All-Americans. Georgia’s national award winners under Stricklin include Aaron Schunk, who won the John Olerud Award as the nation’s top two-way player, and Cam Shepherd, who earned a Gold Glove as the country’s top defensive shortstop.

Georgia’s current team is 21-11 and 5-7 in the SEC entering this weekend’s series against Kentucky.

“The way I look at it is, we knew this year might be a little bit of a rebuilding year, but here we are in the Top 25 of the RPI and coming off a great weekend playing really good baseball,” Stricklin said. “You know you’re in a pretty good spot when you’re rebuilding a little bit, but you’re still in contention.

That’s kind of where I want to make sure we are, that we’re really good every single year, that we’re contending for the postseason and always on the doorstep of getting back to Omaha. That’s our goal, to get back there and see what happens. But I really like the direction we’re headed.”