Boston College hired Patrick Kraft as its new athletic director on Wednesday, bringing in the former Temple AD to replace Martin Jarmond a month after he left for UCLA.
BC hopes the new hire can shore up a program that has struggled to gain attention in a region dominated by its professional sports teams. Under Jarmond, who was in Chestnut Hill for just three years, the school opened a new football fieldhouse and upgraded other facilities but attendance for its revenue sports languished; the football team remained perpetually stuck at seven wins and the basketball team hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2009.
“Pat understands intercollegiate athletics today,” said the Rev. William Leahy, Boston College’s president. “He brings with him obvious passion, and a desire to be a part of the BC community. I look forward to working with him.”
A former Indiana football player, the 43-year-old Kraft started at Temple as the deputy AD in 2013 before being promoted to lead the department in 2015. He is a member of the NCAA Football Oversight and Football Competition committees.
“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,” Kraft, said in a statement. “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.”
Under Kraft, Temple football has had one of its longest runs of sustained success despite changing head coaches three times, reaching a bowl game for five straight years for the first time in school history and winning the 2016 American Athletics Conference championship. The men's basketball team also won the conference title in 2016, and in '17 the women's basketball team reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.
Boston College also praised Kraft's fundraising prowess and his work to improve athlete graduation rates at Temple. In 2018-19, Temple was fourth among FBS schools with an Academic Performance Rate of 993; the graduation rate of 90% was the best in school history.
“Pat has been extraordinarily successful in his seven years here and Temple athletics has been run with enthusiasm and integrity, making us all proud Owls,” Temple President Richard Englert said. “Academic excellence has been a hallmark of Pat’s tenure at Temple. Temple athletes broke records year after year for their performance in the classroom, as well as on the playing field.”
The hiring was first reported by Yahoo!
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