Boston College Hires Pat Kraft As New Athletic Director
BOSTON (CBS) -- Last month, Boston College lost its athletic director when Martin Jarmond left to take the UCLA job. It didn't take the Eagles long to find their replacement.
Boston College has hired Patrick Kraft from Temple. The news was first reported by Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel, with BC confirming the news shortly thereafter. Thamel reported that Kraft signed a five-year deal with BC.
Kraft had been serving as the athletic director at Temple since 2015, after serving as the deputy athletic director at the school for the previous two years.
"I am truly honored to be selected to serve Boston College as the steward of such a great intercollegiate athletics department," said Kraft. "The core values of Boston College are in alignment with how I live my life and how I approach my job, creating world-class experiences for student-athletes with the utmost of integrity, character, faith and love. We will compete for championships, we will continue to graduate young men and women who will go on to change the world, and we will represent BC with pride."
The Temple athletic website lists the football team's progress at the top of the list of accomplishments during Kraft's tenure as AD: "Football won the 2016 American Athletic Conference Championship, marking its first Conference Championship since 1967 and first Conference Championship Game win ever; won 20 games in a two-year span (2015-16), was nationally-ranked for consecutive seasons, all for first time in school history; and football was one of five FBS teams to win 10 or more games in each in the 2015 and 2016 seasons and play in its conference championship game in each year. The Owls won the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl, the third Bowl victory in program history. Football has also competed in bowl games in all four years of Kraft's tenure, marking a record for consecutive postseason appearances."
In the official announcement, BC noted that Kraft "has been credited with transforming Temple's athletics program through new coaching hires, investments in facilities, and a focus on student-athlete welfare and improved classroom performance."
Kraft is obviously not the first person from the Temple program to make the move to BC. Head football coach Steve Addazio coached Temple for two seasons before making the move to The Heights, where he coached for seven years before getting fired and replaced by Jeff Hafley.
"Pat understands intercollegiate athletics today and has extensive experience as a player at Indiana University, as well as an administrator at Loyola University Chicago and Temple," BC president Father William Leahy. "He brings with him obvious passion, and a desire to be a part of the BC community. I look forward to working with him."
