Rebecca Jozwiak | staff writer
In a surprising move by the University of Pittsburgh, Heather Lyke was let go as the school’s athletic director after a seven year stint.
Though she successfully netted extensions and signed talented coaches for Pitt athletics, Lyke has left a financial burden and has done a poor job of handling turnovers. That’s not to say she didn’t achieve success for Pitt athletics during her seven-year tenure, but the direction she was taking the department was untenable.
During her time as Pitt’s athletic director, Lyke found success across a variety of sports. For the first time in the program’s history, the women’s volleyball team found themselves ranked as the top team in the nation. Women’s volleyball is coming off of their most successful season yet. The Panthers advanced to the semifinal round of the NCAA tournament, where the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers swept the team 3-0. The Panthers have yet to lose a game in the 2024-2025 season, going a combined 21-0 record across all of played sets.
Panthers football has also been successful. After winning the 2021 ACC Championship Game and producing the infamous quarterback Kenny Pickett, Pitt football seemed to have taken multiple steps back. The team saw their most disappointing record in the past few years last season, only winning three games and losing nine. Since the start of the new season, the Panthers are 3-0, coming off of an overtime victory against West Virginia in a famed rivalry dubbed as the Backyard Brawl.
Two of Pitt’s most successful sports, volleyball and football, saw their head coaches begin their tenures years before Lyke was hired by the university. While some could argue that these two programs were already destined for success, the continued achievements of both teams would not have occurred if it was not for Lyke’s ability to extend contracts of both Pat Narduzzi and Dan Fisher.
Lyke also breathed new life into the men’s basketball program. After holding a shameful 8-24 record and a 19-game losing streak in the 2017-2018 season, Lyke hired Jeff Capel to take over coaching duties for former head coach Kevin Stallings. In the 2022-2023 season, the Panthers finally found their stride, going 24-12 and advancing to the round of 32 in March Madness.
On paper, Pitt has enjoyed plenty of breakthroughs during the Lyke era. So what went wrong?
Pickett’s departure started the beginning of the end for Pitt football. Lyke extended head coach Pat Narduzzi’s stay in Pittsburgh until at least 2030, but was not able to extend the success of Panthers football to potential recruits and returning players. In a statistic provided by 247 Sports, Pitt football saw seven players de-commit from the program in 2023, in addition to losing 12 players to the transfer portal in that same year.
While the responsibility of these turnover rates belong to the football staff, it is valid to wonder if Lyke could have softened the blow. Instead of advocating for the Victory Heights project and fundraising, Lyke could have allocated further effort and funds into making sure football did feel the collapse that occurred.
One of the most notable events that took place during the Lyke era is the Victory Heights project. Announced in January 2020, the project proposes building a new performance center for Pitt athletics that would cater to athletes’ educational, medical and nutritional needs in advanced fashion. The complex, scheduled to open in the fall of 2025, will include an arena with over 3,000 seats. It will house gymnastics, volleyball and wrestling, costing a whopping $240 million.
Lyke’s idea has yet to take off financially. According to TribLive, only $12 million out of the $240 million cost had been funded by donors in April 2023. Lyke stated that the university will debt service the rest of any additional costs left over.
While other sports have seen success under new coaches, some teams continue to attempt to find the right footing through the ferocity of the ACC. After a revolving door of transfer declarations and inconsistency, former UC Berkeley swimming and diving assistant coach Chase Kreitler took over head coaching duties from Jon Hargis in 2022.
Since then, the Panthers have enjoyed minimal success; women’s swimming improved their finish at the conference championship by only two, going from ninth to seventh. Since 2017, the team’s highest individual placement at the NCAA Championships belongs to senior Sophie Yendell, who placed 17th overall in the 100 yard butterfly at the 2024 NCAA Championship meet.
Lyke expanded women’s sports by adding a women’s lacrosse team, with their inaugural season occurring in 2022. The team has an all-time record of 18-33, with their first season seeing their best record at 9-10. Since then, the team’s win column number has slowly trended downwards.
The lack of success from a handful of teams and extreme focus on the Victory Heights project created turmoil for Lyke throughout the years. While teams faded to losing records and lower conference rankings, Lyke continued to attempt to update the university in order to compete with the accomplishments of other teams.
Was Lyke actively looking for her Pitt tenure to end? According to TribLive, Lyke was heavily considered for Northwestern University’s open athletic director position. Former Villanova director Mark Jackson ultimately beat Lyke out for the job.
With Lyke gone, fans and alumni have plenty to speculate over: how will struggling teams find a way to trend upwards and stay consistent? Will the Victory Heights project be hampered by continued lack of funds and no one behind the helm to continue construction?
Another topic up for discussion for Panther Nation is who will fill Lyke’s vacancy. Media figures such as Dorin Dickerson and Louis Reddick have been suggested for the open position; both Dickerson and Reddick played football for the University of Pittsburgh, and have enjoyed success in their respective fields, as Dickerson works as a social media personality since retiring from the NFL. Reddick has joined the other side of the NFL as a television analyst. There has been no update on potential replacements since her departure.