Louisville to Give Interim AD Josh Heird Full-Time Job, per Sources

Six months after tabbing him as the school’s interim athletic director, Louisville is ready to hand Josh Heird the full-time job.

Sources told SI‘s Pat Forde that the school has locked in on Heird for the position, with an announcement to come as early as the end of this week. Heird beat out a slew of other candidates comprised solely of sitting athletic directors.

Heird arrived at Louisville in 2019 as the deputy athletic director under former AD, Vince Tyra, who resigned on Dec. 8, 2021. Heird was Tyra’s second in command, and was the the sports administrator for football, men’s basketball, baseball, men’s golf, women’s golf and swimming and diving. Prior to arriving at Louisville, he was the senior associate athletic director and chief athletics operating officer at Villanova.

Upon getting the interim job in December, Heird expressed gratitude to Tyra for the work he did and optimism at the direction of the athletic department.

“I think people are in a good spot,” Heird said, per Cameron Teague Robinson of The Courier-Journal. “Vince built strong enough relationships with everybody in that department that they know he is doing O.K. Everybody is focused on doing their jobs right now. Great leaders come and go and I think our department knows that. While Vince is gone and its bittersweet they understand it’s time to move on and that’s what they are doing.” 

Heird played football and ran track and cross country at Mississippi College, where he graduated in 2002. He received his master of business administration from Louisville in 2009.