Five Takeaways from Josh Heird's Introductory Presser

Heird was announced as Louisville's permanent athletic director on Friday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Josh Heird is officially the next man to lead the Louisville athletic department.

On Friday morning, the University of Louisville Athletic Association’s Board of Directors approved for interim athletic director Josh Heird to be stripped of the interim tag and hired to the full-time position.

"The University of Louisville, their fans, and especially our student-athletes, deserve nothing less," Heird said. "And yes, thank you for having the confidence that I was the right choice at the right time to lead this athletic department."

Here are five of our takeaways from his introductory press conference:

Heird credits Tom Jurich for his professional development, will try and get pro-Jurich supporters on board.

Heird got his start in the Louisville athletic department back in 2007, when he was hired by then-AD Tom Jurich to be the assistant AD. He credits a lot of his overall preparedness for the role to the nine years that he worked under Jurich.

"Tom Jurich, he gave me a chance," Heird said. "He provided me with an opportunity to go back to school, get my MBA here at Louisville and allowed me to work here for 10 years. He taught me the status quo was never okay. He helped me understand the importance of creating and setting a vision that allows people associated with your program to dream big and shoot for the stars. We will dream big and we will never be okay with the status quo.”

Prior to the hiring becoming official, a trio of prominent booster sent a letter to interim President Dr. Lori Gonzalez blasting Heird's hire, and vouching for Jurich to get a fair shot at the position. Despite the letter criticizing his abilities as an AD, Heird still wants to get the pro-Jurich section of supporters on board.

"They showed the passion they have for the for this university and for somebody that that led this program for 20 years. That is a heck of a lot better situation to be in, rather than going into a place that doesn't have that same passion," Heird said. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure everybody in this city, anybody associated with this brand, with this university, feels good about what we're doing on this campus. I think if we can show that that everybody will be on board.”

Hiring Kenny Payne played a sizable role in Heird landing the permanent gig.

When Heird was first named the interim AD, many wondered how much power he would truly have. Those questions were answered when he mutually parted ways with men's basketball head coach Chris Mack, and eventually hired Kenny Payne to the same role.

As it turns out, the leadership that he showed when his own job standing was not guaranteed, went a long way towards him being named the permanent AD.

“I would say it was a positive impact," Gonzalez said when asked how Payne's hiring impacted Heird's standing in the search for the permanent position. "Josh won this position, he had stiff competition, including sitting ADs that had winning teams but when we looked at the skillset that he brings and the first word that I use to describe Josh is integrity. He has a belief in student-athletes and he wants to support his coaches. His successes were measured just like successes of other ADs and bringing Kenny on was notable.”

Heird also added that hiring Payne made him "realize that I was given the opportunity to make the big decisions." 

"When you think about all the ADs around the country, there's a lot of them that actually never get to go through that process of hiring a high profile coach," he said. "To be able to do that, it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. I do think it prepared me for this role and got me better at some things. Absolutely.”

Heird wants to remain at the forefront when it comes to the ever-changing NIL landscape.

Across the collegiate athletics landscape, many coaches, administrators, and athletic directors have been reserved when it comes to embracing name, image and likeness and adapting to the endless changes that come with it. Heird is not one of them.

"We are going to be prepared whether it is NIL or are the changing landscape in college football or college athletics as a whole, I can promise you that we'll be prepared," he said. "We will have a plan. We will be able to put ourselves and the University of Louisville in a really strong position no matter what happens.”

Talking to Louisville Report after his introductory press conference ended, Heird added that Louisville was "very quick to set up a structure of compliance" when it came to NIL. When asked about NIL collectives, he said that, while the athletic department can't give involved with them directly, he has had "some conversations, with donors, with supporters, with alums that are interested in starting one."

"Those conversations were purely on the structure. What they can, what they can't do, it was purely from a compliance standpoint," he said. "From there, if they want to do that, then we can't say no. For us, I would look at it as one more tool in our toolbox from an NIL standpoint."

Even with early efforts, Heird is remaining committed to beefing up the football program's resources.

When he was first introduced as the interim AD, Heird made a pledge to beef up the football program's recruiting department. Since then, he has added Florida's John Herron as a recruiting coordinator and promoted Clay Colvin to a similar role. But he's not stopping there.

"When you look at the staffs across the country - go look at George's football staff, go look at Alabama's football staff. We don't compare," Heird told Louisville Report. "Can we just incrementally grow that can we say, "hey, we got some more butts in the seats," and we have more revenue, so we can create two more positions.

"We have to be committed to football being good. So we're going to continue to evolve, and try to create and provide the resources they need to win football games."

The athletic department's finances seem to be on the bounce back, and he is committed to the fundraising aspect of it.

Like every athletic department in collegiate athletics, Louisville was hit hard by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But fortunately, brighter days seem to be ahead.

Heird noted that, last week, he presented a budget to the Board of Trustees, and it was the "largest we've ever had." According to the official release on his hiring, UofL will have an operating budget that exceeds $114 million for the 2022-23 academic year.

"We’ve got to deal with some debt, and we’re committed to doing that," Heird said. "That does not mean that we’re going to stop creating and finding projects to build and make sure that we have the resources for our student-athletes to be successful. I think we have a plan in place to do that and that’s what we are going to do.”

Part of that equation involves fundraising, which Heird has experience in stemming from his time at Villanova and his previous role under Vince Tyra. Now that he is the permanent AD, he's more committed to fundraising than ever,

"We’re going to continue to get out there," he said. "We’re going to meet with anybody and everybody. As I’ve said, the one thing I can do with fans and donors is give them my most valuable asset, which is time. And I will meet with anybody, anywhere."

(Photo of Josh Heird, Louisville Media: Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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