Dave Heeke: a steady hand in a turbulent time

By Mike Luke

It’s easy to forget the turmoil that enveloped Arizona athletics in the months before the school hired Dave Heeke as athletic director. Here’s a refresher:

April 2015: Track and field coach Craig Carter was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was later convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

January 2016: Basketball player Elliott Pitts was banned from in-state universities after being charged with multiple Title IX violations, including sexual assault.

September 2016: Football player Orlando Bradford was arrested on seven counts of aggravated assault and kidnapping. He was later convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

On the football field, the memory of a 2014 Pac-12 South title was obliterated by a disastrous 3-9, 2016 season under Rich Rodriguez.

With all of that turmoil swirling around the program, Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne departed for Alabama, opening a door for the UA to nab Dave Heeke, who assumed the position in February of 2017 after a successful stint in the same position at Central Michigan.

The view through that door was alarming, and it would get a lot worse before it got better. Whether Heeke knew the full extent of the situation before he arrived, or how much more uncertain things were going to get, he still accepted the position feeling flattered, invigorated and optimistic about his future.

From establishing lifelong connections while climbing the Oregon athletic department hierarchy, to achieving the athletic director position at Central Michigan, the East Lansing, Michigan native felt ready to attack the rigors of a major conference job. Within five years, Arizona’s faith paid dividends, and on April 22, 2022 Heeke signed his second contract extension, this time with a hefty raise.

Getting to that point wasn’t easy. The road was fraught with frustration, some failures, a lot of flak, and some unfair narratives. Heeke absorbed arrows for the disastrous hiring of football coach Kevin Sumlin, internet message boards portrayed him as a lackey to university president Robert C.Robbins while simultaneously criticizing him for not publicly supporting a men’s basketball coaching staff that was charged with five Level I NCAA violations.

But Heeke had a vision. He stayed on point, and Arizona athletics is on far more solid footing as a result.

“This will probably get someone on me, but I am a simple man,“ Heeke said. “Often in life and work we make things so complicated and it inhibits our ability to stay focused on solutions.
“The role of the athletic director is to deal with unforeseen issues. And, at times, there is only so much one can do to prevent student issues. I get that. But I tried to keep things simple and focused.

“First, academics and character from top to bottom have to matter. There is no reason our student-athletes shouldn’t excel in both areas. Those are the types of things we can control.

“Then we have to win and adjust if something doesn’t work. Additionally, we must continue to upgrade our facilities.

Putting out fires

While most new athletic directors like to establish their philosophies and approach, Heeke was too busy putting out fires and looking to install basic mechanisms to ensure organizational integrity to worry about his image.

“I was happy with the progress we made in those early months and when you step back and look at things, I’m very happy with where we are regarding student-athlete behavior, academics and competitive success,” he said. “But there’s no doubt it was a stressful time.”

The times got more stressful.

In September 2017, assistant basketball coach and long-time Sean Miller recruiting ace Emmanuel “Book” Richardson was arrested on federal bribery charges for receiving monetary payments to steer high-level basketball recruits to specific professional representation.

The news shocked the proud basketball community of Tucson. This was a desert basketball empire built in the clean and pristine image of Lute Olson.

But the Richardson arrest didn’t shock many of the program’s close followers. Richardson had a lengthy reputation for playing fast and loose with the rules. Just 17 months later, Arizona associate head basketball coach Mark Phelps was fired after previously being reprimanded for NCAA violations.

The next three and a half years were marked by investigations, false ESPN reports, the aforementioned message board fury over a perceived lack of administration support for Miller, and a worsening on-court product.

Those were fires that had to be extinguished. They weren’t Heeke’s fault, but it was still his responsibility to determine how to move forward.

The same defense can’t be used for Heeke’s first major hire. Kevin Sumlin was never a good fit for Arizona. Sure, the former Texas A&M coach checked a lot of boxes — Heisman Trophy quarterback coach, recruiting prowess and past success — but it was a hire doomed from the beginning.

Between apparent coaching apathy, distractions, subpar recruiting and the disastrous Khalil Tate marriage, it quickly became clear that the Sumlin era wouldn’t end well.

The nail in that coffin came in a 70-7 shellacking at the hands of arch-rival Arizona State on Dec. 11, 2020.

“I made that hire,” Heeke said. “I had to own that and tried to learn from it.”

A bright light during a dark time

While the football program was at arguably its lowest point in history, the 2020 national spotlight revealed a more favorable atmosphere on the Arizona campus.

With the world in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic and the promise of a vaccine still months away, the college sports world spent much of the summer of 2020 trying to figure out how to safely navigate a football season.

The Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences announced in early August that they wouldn’t play the 2020 season before eventually reversing course and electing to join the SEC, ACC and Big 12 conferences in an experimental season.

Chaos ensued, with dozens of programs having to cancel or postpone multiple games, but Arizona football and basketball missed no games due to COVID, while becoming a nationwide leader in testing and contact tracing and offering its campus as a statewide vaccination center.

“I made it my mission to talk daily with coaches and athletes about the importance of being smart about your decisions, but a lot of the success was a receptive student-athlete body, a little luck and president Robbins,” Heeke said.

A cardiac surgeon by trade, Arizona President Robert C. Robbins also doubles as one of Arizona Athletics’ biggest fans. But it was his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that brought such positive light to the university.

“He’s a man of medicine and science,” Heeke said. “He knew this was an opportunity to leverage all of his skill and background into making the University of Arizona one of the nation’s leaders in this area. We’re very fortunate to have Bobby.”

On issues pertaining to Arizona athletics, however, Robbins’ visibility painted Heeke in a negative light; at least in some online circles. Most of the internet message board-based criticism aimed at Heeke stems directly from Heeke’s relationship with Robbins and the perception that the current athletic director is a lackey for the school president.

“Here’s the first thing that many people don’t get about president Robbins. He is involved in every aspect of the university,” Heeke said. “He’s involved personally in all the departments, including athletics. I swear he works 23 hours per day. He is everywhere that is under his guidance, including the athletic department. He wants this university to be outstanding at every level.

Heeke and Robbins developed a trust early on that started with a dinner in the summer of 2017.

“I was hired by president (Ann Weaver) Hart, and so when President Robbins took over a few months later and wanted to meet with me I had no clue what to expect. It could have easily been a meeting where he told me he wanted to bring in his own person. I didn’t know.”

The two quickly bonded while discovering that their disparate backgrounds complemented each other well and would lead to a professional friendship of engaging back and forths.

“President Robbins is a genius. You can look at his résumé or talk with him for five minutes and realize that,” Heeke said. “I think his background and connections in academia and beyond and mine in the athletic profession have paired nicely.”

But make no mistake, the buck stops with one man.

“At the end of the day, President Robbins is the boss of the university,” Heeke said. “He is responsible for every facet.

“A GM runs day-to-day stuff and certainly gives his input and offers the best plans and solutions for situations but the owner has strong interest in the outcomes and is ultimately the person who signs off. And I’m fine with that because it leads to constructive conversation and debate leading to a decision with strong support. I feel very comfortable with what I’ve contributed. At the end of the day, I’m the one here interacting and dealing with coaches every day.”

That relationship helped to galvanize the decision to part ways with Miller.

“Sometimes things just run their course,” Heeke said. “We stuck with Sean and went through the process and for a variety of reasons we felt we needed to move in a different direction regarding the basketball program’s leadership.”

Heeke took issue with his perceived lack of public support for the embattled coach.

“Listen, everyone knew we were standing by Sean,” he said. “We released statements verbally and in print. Eventually, you’re not just going to address every single rumor or report and obviously we were working very closely with legal on this, like any issue regarding the NCAA.”

Heeke is appreciative of Miller’s contributions to the program.

“Sean did a lot of great things,” he said. “I think he’ll do a fantastic job at Xavier, but we felt we just needed a new voice and style to lead the program.

Connections count

To borrow from golf parlance, the athletic director at a school like Arizona can mulligan the football coaching hire. Once. Sumlin bombed, but UA football isn’t the benchmark of the Bear Down brand. That mantle belongs to men’s basketball. If Heeke had “Sumlined” that hire, it’s game, and possibly career over.

If the first-year results are indicative of future success, however, Heeke’s legacy may be secure.

Affable and a student of up-tempo basketball, longtime Gonzaga associate head coach Tommy Lloyd was the opposite of Miller and someone who came with ringing endorsements.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about how these searches are run,” Heeke said. “With Tommy, it was pretty straightforward. I know a lot of people in the industry with significant basketball knowledge. For example (ex-Gonzaga coach) Dan Monson and I went to high school together and I knew his father as well from my time at Oregon. I know (current Boise State and former longtime Gonzaga assistant) Leon Rice from when we worked together at Oregon. So the Gonzaga success model was something that I followed and appreciated.Things like that always give you a leg up in these spots when doing research.”

Those contacts only reinforced what Heeke already suspected. Lloyd received ringing endorsement from friends and acquaintances alike.

“Tommy is a popular guy and whenever we would ask someone about an assistant we should look at, Tommy was the guy,” Heeke said. “He could recruit, was the right-hand man for one of the handful of best programs in the country and is an easy person to be around. We felt it was a very high upside hire and necessary change in course. But we certainly didn’t see this kind of impact this fast. At the end this was a basketball program that needed a guy like Tommy. A fresh approach and new style.”

And the results were immediate. To the tune of a Pac-12 regular season and postseason championship along with a number one seed in the NCAA tournament.

There is no crystal ball, but it’s possible that the Lloyd hire may eventually be viewed as a pivotal point in the program’s trajectory. The men’s basketball program still faces looming sanctions and it’s unclear precisely what those will be, but with an overhauled coaching staff and a new on the court product the feeling is that the school is better equipped to weather those repercussions than it was a few years ago.

Add to that the meteoric rise of women’s basketball under the guidance of UA alum Adia Barnes, the conclusion of construction on an indoor football facility, and the notable uptick in academic performance. The spring of 2018 witnessed a school record 3.028 grade point average, the first 3.0 or above GPA in school history. Those heights were followed by a 3.057 the following semester and 3.102 the next semester. Currently the department’s GPA resides over 3.2.

Given recent trends, it is increasingly difficult to paint Heeke as a guy in over his head; a puppet providing deflection for an overbearing president. In almost every metric that matters, Arizona athletics is on better footing now than it was five years ago.

Almost every metric. One major cleanup remained: the Sumlin misstep, and what to do about the frustration and apathy that has permeated the UA football program.

An entire staff

Heeke is fond of the phrase “learning from mistakes,” but it’s clear that he also isn’t afraid to take a chance. Jedd Fisch was anything but the conventional Arizona football hire

“I was up close and I saw everything and knew the next football coach needed to want to be here and had to have a staff that could recruit,” Heeke said. “An entire staff.”

It’s not that past Arizona football hires were bad. John Mackovic was a disaster, a curious pendulum-overreaction to the polarizing Dick Tomey era that led to public discontent among the coach and many of his players, and left the program in tatters. Sumlin was never a good fit, but Mike Stoops and Rich Rodriguez made sense, and had some limited success; just not the success the fanbase and administration required.

Arizona football isn’t an easy gig so the administration acknowledged that limitation and opted for a major reboot.

“We knew where we were and we decided to just strip this entire thing down to the floor and rebuild and that’s when we started looking outside the box,” Heeke said.

Both men quickly zeroed in on a familiar face. Familiar to them, but not to anyone else observing and analyzing the hiring process.

“We liked Jedd’s energy when we interviewed him back in 2018, and the next time around he checked off every single box we had really prioritized,” Heeke said. “From being a tireless worker to assembling a staff full of coaches who all recruit, we knew he could make this thing work.”

While the team’s dismal 1-11 record wasn’t surprising, given the state of the program, Heeke didn’t envision the off-the-field results coming as quickly as they have.

“Honestly, that first year for me was just about changing the culture within the program and with our former players and fans and getting a nice recruiting base going,” Heeke said. “I’d be lying, though, if I thought this first recruiting class would be one of the top 25 in the country and with a follow-up class he’s doing very well in also.”

With Lloyd’s approval rating hovering around 100 percent and Fisch hauling in the best class in school history, Heeke still remains focused on his foundational pillars.

“Academics and character were things I really prioritized and I’m very happy with how our students have conducted themselves,” he said.

It would be natural for a man in Heeke’s position to spike his contract extension and stick it in the face of the Wildcat internet doubters. But that isn’t his style.

Cedric Dempsey put the program on the map and made some of the best hires in school history; Jim Livengood focused on stability and a family atmosphere within the program dynamic; Byrne brought a corporate mentality and fundraising emphasis to the role, which was appreciated by major boosters.

So what is Heeke? The simplest of all designations: He’s good at his job, and that seems appropriate for a self-admitted simple man.

“Listen, criticism comes with the job, but I came here knowing what I wanted to do on and off the playing field,” he said. “Sure, I had to deal with a lot of issues very early on, but the important thing for any AD is to stay true to yourself and learn from every decision.

“I feel very confident with the strength of the athletic department now and where it’s headed. We have a tremendous group of people, staff and supporters committed to the program and its success. Additionally, I am incredibly honored and privileged to be the athletic director at such a great university.”

Follow Mike Luke on Twitter @ironmikeluke