Pat Kraft is more visible than he thinks.
At every football game, he’s standing on the sidelines, hunched over in a squat, intensely staring down the opposition with the same vigor he had as a linebacker at Indiana. When a big play happens, Kraft pumps his fist through the air in celebration and if a player comes out of bounds near him, he tosses him an “attaboy” with a pat on the back.
It’s hard not to miss the athletic director. He’s too prominent there to ignore.
Because of that and his aggressive approach to other matters, he is the most visible administrator Penn State athletics has had over the last 20 years – maybe ever. He is part of the show. He has put himself in the spotlight. It has also endeared him to the fanbase — unlike any other administrator before him.
So that’s what made what Kraft said in an interview with Lavar Arrington for Roar+ this summer so odd.
“Believe it or not, it is not of my nature to do this,” Kraft said, referring to the conversation with Arrington. “I don’t want to do media. I don’t like to do media. Because it’s not really about me.”
Now, it is about Kraft and how the athletic director has made a visible mess of Penn State’s head coaching hiring process.
After failing to reel in BYU’s Kalani Sitake for the open head coach position, Kraft has made the coaching search about himself and the job he’s done in Happy Valley, leaving Penn State fans to question the trust he’s gained.
The head coaching search after firing James Franklin has been Kraft’s and Kraft’s alone. There is no big consulting firm hunting for him. There is no search committee. There may be a small inner circle, but there is no group made up of former players or big boosters and certainly no input – nor should there be – from any local or state politician.
Because the thoughts have been stored in Kraft’s head, a tight lid has been kept on the process. While schools like Florida and LSU were fighting it out in public, Kraft kept moving in the background.
That’s how Kraft was able to come within what seems like minutes – or maybe a signature – of landing Sitake.
While Penn State fans made their wishlists and beat writers made their hotboards, with how Kraft has operated and how quiet, it made sense the biggest candidate available in the process may not appear until he was nearly signed, sealed and delivered too.
Sure, there was Kraft’s buddy Matt Rhule, the former Penn State football player and Temple, now Nebraska head coach (among other spots.) But just about two weeks after Kraft fired Franklin in the biggest decision of his career, Rhule signed an extension to keep him in Nebraska until 2032.
Maybe it was the pressure of his alma mater, and maybe it was the concern about the old adage of going into business with your friend that made Rhule balk at the opportunity to come back home. But it was clear that Kraft’s top option quickly came off the board — even if it wasn’t a good one to begin with.
Then Kraft set his sights on New Jersey native Mike Elko. But as much as Kraft swung for the fences, Texas A&M’s never-ending pipeline of oil money got the Aggies’ head coach an extension himself in mid-November.
Then, as reports have indicated, talks heated up with Sitake, even if it was a curious choice from Kraft.
Kraft’s M.O. at Penn State has been to challenge the status quo of the way things were done. Just because something was done one way in the past doesn’t mean it needed to be that way in the present. It’s something he’s said repeatedly and in that Roar+ interview. From the business standpoint of running the athletic department, it’s worked – even with a little bit of pushback. There’s been a field-naming rights deal for Beaver Stadium. There’s been an additional Amica ad on the field. There have been new fonts. There’s been the opening of the logo and the licensing to more merchandise brands. There’s been a $300 million Adidas deal, severing the ties between Penn State and Nike.
From the business standpoint, everything Kraft has done has been different. That’s what made the choice of Sitake both odd and almost obvious – even if it was top secret.
Sitake has almost exclusively coached in the state of Utah and has no real ties to anything east of the Mississippi. But it doesn’t mean that with the right staff around him, it wouldn’t work in Happy Valley. There is a sense in the same way Kraft was challenging the business practices at Penn State, he would challenge the Xs and Os sense at Penn State with this hire in a new model.
But it would have been a massive gamble. So too was trying to get Sitake to come to Penn State. Not only was there the prospect of pulling a coach out of a potential College Football Playoff run, but there was also the prospect of pulling Sitake, a Mormon, out of the flagship university of the Latter-day Saints, BYU.
Not only would it be difficult to pull Sitake from his deep ties beyond a diploma to the school, it would be an uphill battle against wealthy donors as well.
Yet Kraft himself felt confident enough that he could get it done. As word emerged of the name to the purported Mystery Man twinkling in the eyes of the message boards, it now appears that the uphill battle was much larger than Kraft anticipated.
After going from minutes from potentially informing his team in a meeting to having influential alumni push to save the day roughly 24 hours later, Sitake is staying at BYU with a new contract – just like the other prime targets.
What’s different about this “no” to Kraft is how late it came.
While all of this was happening, many of the other potential targets have landed at other destinations. The reported fallback plan in JMU’s Bob Chesney has already started recruiting for his new job at UCLA. Names like Sumrall and Golesh are off to other gigs. Some have already had their introductory press conferences. Will Stein, off to Kentucky, was reportedly told he was “a bit raw” for Penn State’s liking, even.
Internally, it’s now an awkward ask to hire interim Terry Smith, the guy who probably would have found he got the job by last Sunday at the latest. And at this point, Smith wouldn’t be able to fix the position Kraft has put him in. Penn State’s recruiting class has nearly evaporated and may not be around by the end of the week. Kraft pounded the table at the press conference in the wake of firing Franklin, repeatedly making it clear he wanted the new coach to raid the transfer portal.
But that’s not exactly possible ahead of the 2026 season when the potential new coach is already on staff and already has his players on the roster.
Even if Kraft is relying on a candidate to emerge from the 12-team playoff field – whether it be a head coach or not – there is no guarantee that the coach will be able to pull enough players in from his previous team. Especially if it’s a coordinator from one of those teams, there is a good chance any new signee will still stay at the place they signed and not jump ship.
Players aside, seeing how many names have publicly and even privately passed on the Penn State opportunity with Kraft, it’s not unreasonable to think that anyone else out there would look at the mess Kraft created and laugh in his face.
Kraft’s all-in push on Sitake and lack of what feels like an apparent plan B has backfired in his face, and now Penn Staters are left to feel the repercussions, too.
There is still a $700 million stadium renovation to pay for and while there is a reported $70 million raised, Kraft is going to need more money. Penn State will also need more money to pay for any new talent and retain any talent that wants to stay.
Yet when Kraft keeps making these decisions that have only resulted in other schools getting more money for themselves, why should Penn State trust him to complete this process? Why should Penn State believe he’s stewarding the athletic department in the best direction? Why would big-time donors continue to donate when they see what he’s done with their money?
With the Sitake failure, Penn State is questioning if it trusts Kraft, and rightly so. Nothing in this process has gone right – aside from firing Franklin. The tone around Kraft has turned too. Instead of cheering him on, clamoring at the monster he supposedly built — even if it was one he actually inherited — the tenor toward Kraft shifted, particularly online in the last 48 hours.
As the coaching search enters another day, it feels like the trust Kraft earned by standing on the sidelines, the thing that many Penn State fans like about him and is a symbol of Kraft’s attitude, is gone. His visible approach at Penn State – and his quiet, singular approach in the process – has backfired.
In creating this mess, Kraft has made this about himself. It’s now up to him to fix it if Penn State trusts him anymore.
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