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Dave Heeke is out as athletic director of the Arizona Wildcats, the school announced on Monday. It is another big news coming out of Tucson in the Arizona football offseason, as it comes on the heels of the Wildcats finding a successor to Jedd Fisch to coach the program in the form of Brent Brennan.
It appears that Heeke's firing was largely caused by financial issues (via ESPN).
“Heeke announced a plan last Thursday to help the school recover from a university-wide $240 million miscalculation of projected cash on hand. The plan includes hiring freezes and a pause on all major construction projects with the athletic department still on the hook to repay a $55 million loan issued during the pandemic.”
Although the timing of Heeke's split with Arizona comes across as questionable to some, especially since Arizona football just had its best record in a season in nearly a decade, the school might have also just been forced to make the tough decision for a fresh start under a new athletic director as it prepares to begin its journey to the Big 12.
In the 2023 college football season, Arizona football went 10-3 and won at the Alamo Bowl. It's the best record the Wildcats had since going 10-4 as well in 2014 and the first bowl win since 2015. Perhaps, the failure to keep Fisch as Arizona football head coach also contributed to Heeke's fate with Arizona.
Before overseeing Arizona football and the other athletic Wildcats departments, Heeke served as the athletic director for Central Michigan,
