Keith Gavin is facing the first big changes to his coaching staff after five seasons as Pitt’s head wrestling coach.

Jordan Leen, who has been with Gavin for all of that time, including four seasons as associate head coach, has accepted the top job at Brown, leaving what seems like a large hole on the Panthers staff.

While losing Leen, who played a key role in the program’s turnaround on the mat and in the recruiting battles, is big, it might not lead to much of a shakeup.

The most likely scenario would be for Drew Headlee, who has been an assistant at Pitt for nine years, to step up to the second rung on the coaching ladder. Headlee’s position could then be filled by Luke Pletcher, who has been a volunteer assistant while serving as a resident athlete at the Pittsburgh Wrestling Club Regional Training Center.

Jake Wentzel, who was an NCAA runner-up for the Panthers in 2021, is reportedly going to remain with the program as a volunteer assistant, while resident athlete Demetrius Thomas could have a larger role within the PWC.

No announcements are expected to be made before July 1 regarding the staff, but Gavin didn’t sound like someone looking to make drastic changes when he spoke with PantherLair on Tuesday.

“We’re pretty happy with the guys that we have around the program,” he said.

Leen thinks Gavin already has the makings of a great staff.

“What they have internally is exactly what they need,” he said. “Those are Pitt guys through and through. I think I played a critical role, but they really can be Pitt through and through. A guy like Luke Pletcher (who is from Latrobe but wrestled at Ohio State) fits that mold. Luke Pletcher’s a Pittsburgh guy. Maybe if things were different a few years earlier, he’d have been a Pitt guy.”

Gavin, Headlee, Wentzel and Thomas all wrestled for Pitt.

Leen, who wrestled at Cornell and coached at Duke and Virginia before coming to Pitt, sees Oakland as a place that high school graduates can come to earn a degree while competing at the highest level. They could then join the PWC and, eventually, move into coaching.

“People are able to recognize Pittsburgh as a destination location,” Leen said. “They’re some of the nation’s best wrestlers and best coaches. It wouldn’t make sense to look elsewhere.”