Pat McAfee Applauds West Virginia For Firing AD

NFL punter-turned-broadcast Pat McAfee took to Twitter to give his West Virginia props for moving on from athletic director Shane Lyons.

The former Mountaineer tweeted his support for the decision to can Lyons, who had been the school's athletic director since 2015.

I don’t have a relationship with anybody in WVU Athletics currently so take this as you may…" McAfee wrote. "But as somebody who has followed along from afar.. this feels like a VERY SOLID move for the program.

"Excited to see if WVU can regain some notoriety nationally. GREAT place."

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, West Virginia's decision to move on from Lyons was a double whammy of budget issues and the Mountaineers' underperforming football team.

"I deeply appreciate Shane's leadership over the past eight years and I wish him well," WVU President Gordon Gee said. "But with the ever-changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics, I believe this is an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to our program."

WVU replaced Lyons from within on an interim basis, with the school's vice president for strategic initiatives Rob Alsop. However, Gee says that the Mountaineers hope to have a new long-term athletic director in three to four weeks.

It's thought that with Lyons out of the picture, head coach Neal Brown's future just got a bit murkier.

While, Brown led the team to a win over Oklahoma, which snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Sooners, he has a 21-24 record through four seasons.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle