New Penn State AD Pat Kraft Has One Thing in Mind

New Penn State University athletic director Pat Kraft is ready to win.

Penn State University introduced its new athletic director Pat Kraft in a press conference on Friday morning.

Kraft, who was a walk-on linebacker for Indiana, spent time as the athletic director at Temple and Boston College before replacing the retiring Sandy Barbour here in Happy Valley.

Kraft comes to town during an interesting time for Penn State athletics.

The football program has struggled on the field the last two seasons, but head coach James Franklin just received a monster extension, the school in is the middle of a nearly $50 million renovation of the football facilities and there’s talk of a new stadium.

Additionally, the men’s basketball program is in year two of a rebuild under Micah Shrewsberry and the women’s volleyball team will have a new head coach for the first time since 1979.

Kraft should just let wrestling do what they’re doing though, because that seems to be working just fine.

Despite not having any association with the school prior to this hiring, Kraft seems to understand the expectations placed on athletic programs at Penn State. During his press conference on Friday, Kraft gave a statement that will make every Penn Stater smile: He’s ready to win.

Greg Pickel of On3 shared the exact quote on Twitter:

Penn State’s athletic department needs to be committed to winning, if they’re going to keep up in the ultra-competitive landscape of today’s college athletics. Programs across the country are pumping more and more dollars into athletics. Some, like Georgia football, are seeing the results while others, like Texas football, are still waiting for the winning to begin.

Kraft can’t be afraid to go above and beyond to keep the programs at Penn State competitive. If that means spending a little more to keep a coordinator around or going through the process of building a new basketball facility for both the men’s and women’s teams, you have to do it. Above all, the school needs to embrace the NIL era of college sports and use it to its advantage.

Kraft’s words certainly were encouraging, but he will the need the backing of his higher ups to truly get all of the athletic programs clicking again.

We saw in 2019-20, right before the pandemic, how electric State College was when the football team, the men’s basketball team, the men’s hockey team and the wrestling team were all clicking at the same time. With Kraft at the controls, it looks like we are headed back to those days and could be capable of even more success.