AD Lyke wants football stability
DETROIT — Heather Lyke was far from pleased with how Pat Narduzzi’s team finished its 2019 campaign.
But Pitt’s athletic director does not expect any staff changes this offseason. Instead, Lyke preached stability an hour before the Panthers kicked at Ford Field in Thursday night’s Quick Lane Bowl.
“The continuity of the coaching staff is critical. We’ve made that a very important focus and priority and we’re really thrilled to have our coaching staff back and, obviously, to get some players back who were injured early in the season and the preseason,” Lyke said. “We have a lot of potential. There is a tremendous opportunity next season”
Lyke called the Panthers’ 0-2 finish — a shutout loss at Virginia Tech and lackluster display as nine-point home favorites against Boston College — “disappointing.”
But the athletic director also said Pitt’s 7-5 season had “positives to take from it.”
“Even the Virginia game, we have a new offensive coordinator,” Lyke added. “I don’t feel like we were in our groove right out of the gate. I feel [if] we played Virginia later in the season we could have performed much better. The reality was, there are a lot of bright spots.”
The Panthers played up to task at Penn State, upset Central Florida and appeared poised to defend their ACC Coastal division crown even after the Week 1 loss to the Cavaliers. At 7-3 overall entering its November game at Virginia Tech, Pitt was two wins and a Virginia loss away from facing Clemson again in the conference title game.
But those losses to close the season put a damper on the momentum Pitt built in September and October, allowing fans to further vent frustrations.
When asked about the direction of the program as Narduzzi wraps up his fifth year in charge — with five seasons to go on his contract, which was extended by Lyke after Pitt’s 5-7 campaign in 2017 — the AD said Narduzzi “continues to become a better head coach every year.
“I think we’ve got a lot to do in the offseason to evaluate everything in the program, which we do every year. I don’t think this year is different in any way,” Lyke said. “But I think there’s a tremendous amount of talent coming back and a real opportunity to make an impact next season. Finish some games, eliminate some penalties, do some things [differently] that we were all disappointed in in many ways, him included.
“No one takes it harder than him. No one expects more than him. But I’ve got a lot of confidence in his staff and keeping the continuity of that staff together.”
Here are highlights from Lyke’s media availability.
Pitt’s fall sports success
“I think it’s absolutely headed in the right direction. We haven’t turned it. It hasn’t transformed. But it’s turning and transforming in a really positive way . ... Next year, [women’s soccer will] be in the tournament. Men’s soccer, they lost to the reigning national champions in the tournament. Obviously, women’s volleyball is poised to do really great things having our starting setter back. There’s a number of key things headed in the right direction. I’m really pleased.”
Bowl selection process
“You have conversations all the time with your contacts in the bowl. I have great respect and great relationships with all those people. It’s very much … I wouldn’t say it’s out of your hands, but, it’s not as if anyone doesn’t want Pitt. That was very promising in many ways. They’d say, ‘We’d love to have Pitt. We have to see how things shake out.’ You just don’t have a lot of natural control over it.”