Analyzing The Patrick Kraft Hire At Boston College
Earlier today, Boston College officially announced that Temple AD Patrick Kraft would be the next AD in Chestnut Hill. Kraft would be replacing Martin Jarmond who left in May to take the AD job at UCLA. Athletic Director jobs are hard to judge on the surface so let's take a look at what Kraft does and does not bring to the job based on his track record.
A former Indiana University football player, Kraft brings a variety of experience to Boston College. He brings Jesuit experience as the former senior associate AD at Loyola University of Chicago. Like his predecessor, Kraft was also named to the "Top 40 under 40 List" in the Sports Bureau Journal.
Kraft took over as Temple AD in 2015 and was head of Athletics when Temple won the AAC in 2016, their first conference title since 1967. His program won back to back ten game seasons, and was ranked in back to back seasons for the first time in school history. After Matt Rhule left the program to become the head coach at Baylor, Kraft brought Geoff Collins to Temple in 2017 who after two years of success went on to become the head coach at Georgia Tech. Last season he hired Rod Carey out of NIU, who won two games against ranked opponents on his way to going 8-5.
Also during his time at Temple he was in charge of a basketball program that won the regular season title in the AAC in 2016 and made two NCAA tournaments in 2016 and 2019. Women's basketball also cracked the Top 25 in 2017 for the first time since 2005-06 and had five straight NCAA tournament appearances. He also oversaw non revenue programs that had big years including men's soccer, women's lacrosse, men's crew and tennis.
One of the other big job descriptions for an AD involves fund raising. Kraft was a rock star at Temple, setting new records for donations for five straight years. During his time at the university, donations increased by 75%. For a school like Boston College that wants finish Jarmond's Greater Heights campaign, Kraft will bring valuable experience and expertise to hopefully complete that task.
He served as AD during the opening of the Temple Sports Complex, East Park Canoe House, new golf, crew and rowing practice facilities along with a series of different strength and conditioning improvements. Boston College should be shooting to build a basketball practice facility, and based on his track record Kraft could be the man to complete it.
He also was instrumental in bringing College Gameday to Temple for the first time ever.
The one part of the job we will need to see is if Kraft engages the fans like Jarmond did. For the past three years the former AD did a solid job of energizing the fan base and getting them excited about Boston College sports. Jarmond improved gameday experience, brought alcohol to the stadiums and brought a face to the program. Can Kraft continue that? It is important to note that during Jarmond's tenure attendance never seemed to markedly increase in either revenue sport. That will be a big challenge for Kraft to tackle when he takes over in July.
There is no such thing as a "sexy" hire in college sports administration. It's a job where most of the successes and failures come with their coaching hires, who then get the glory themselves. But there is so much more to the job, and based off those criterion Patrick Kraft brings a lot to be excited about, and he should continue the momentum that Martin Jarmond brought at Boston College. And based on the reactions of people who knew him at his former schools, BC hit a home run with this hire.
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