What BC AD Pat Kraft Said on ACC Network ‘Road Trip’
Andy BackstromStaff Writer
Pat Kraft is a football guy.
He played at Indiana, where he walked on and ultimately earned a scholarship. Then, as the athletic director of Temple, he oversaw the Owls’ rise to prominence. During Kraft’s five-year stay at Temple, the football program logged back-to-back 10-win seasons, both of which included AP Poll appearances. He also hired Geoff Collins, Manny Diaz—even if it lasted for only 18 days—and Rod Carey.
Kraft didn’t have to bring anyone in when he took the AD job at Boston College. Luckily, his guy was already there. Months before leaving BC for UCLA, Martin Jarmond hired Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to spearhead the latest BC rebuild: a process that was fast-tracked last season despite a pandemic and a rigorous 10-game league schedule.
Kraft—who joined ACC Network Wednesday for the channel’s “Road Trip” tour of BC—was perhaps most impressed by the fact that the program helped set the standard for COVID-19 prevention, going more than 8,000 tests without a positive in 2020.
“What Jeff and the team did with no positive cases basically the entire year,” Kraft said, “that tells you why we’re going to be a really, really good team moving forward.”
Like Hafley and his team, Kraft adopted the mentality of “control what you can control” last year. Now that the pandemic is mostly in the rear view mirror, though, he’s ready to hit the gas.
“I’m excited to show everybody this Boston College team. I’m humbled by the opportunity I have, but this is a great program,” he said while sitting next to former BC star linebacker Mark Herzlich and ACC Network host Jordan Cornette.
“It’s a historic program. … We gotta show it. We gotta go and kick some butt and do what these guys did [points to Herzlich] not that long ago. And there’s a great lineage there.”
Last year, BC didn’t allow fans in Alumni Stadium because of COVID-19. The Eagles played just three games with a crowd: The Clemson game was the lone matchup with more than 1,000 people in attendance. Kraft is ready to welcome the BC faithful back to Chestnut Hill.
He said the fans and community at BC have been “amazing.” And he’s excited to walk out on gameday as the university’s athletic director.
Per usual, Kraft’s energy on air was infectious.
He spoke of how BC lacrosse’s national championship—the school’s first NCAA team title since men’s hockey won it all in 2012—this spring has set the tone for programs on campus. The second-year BC AD explained how Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s bunch had the “it” factor he hopes every team at BC can possess.
“The run they had—I mean they’re the best team in the country,” Kraft said. “And now everybody feeds off it, and the community gets behind it. We’re national champions, and nobody can take that away from us. Nobody.”
Kraft said that the title “breeds confidence” for BC athletics. He wants his programs to win, including the football team, which was picked as high as third in the Atlantic Division of the ACC Preseason Poll for the first time since 2010 earlier this summer. But Kraft has greater expectations—for 2020 and the future.
When asked about the potential of BC football winning a national championship during his tenure, he responded with a question of his own.
“Well, why not?” he said.
“We provide a great academic experience—I would argue one of the best in the country—and then we go at it, and we’re in one of the great cities in the world. We have it all. We have great people. Go win it. Go take it. Go get it. That’s our mentality.”
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