Dec. 6, 2001
Tom Craft (SDSU '77)
Head Football Coach
San Diego State
Player, alumnus, offensive coordinator and now head coach.
San Diego State's quest for football supremacy in the Mountain West Conference has been handed to not only one of the nation's top junior college coaches, but an individual whose ties to the University date back over a quarter century.
Tom Craft, who quarterbacked the Aztecs to a 10-1 record in 1976, won multiple national championships at Palomar College and coordinated back-to-back top-10 offenses at SDSU, was named the Aztecs' 15th head football coach on Dec. 6, 2001.
Craft's hiring marks the first time an alum of San Diego State has be name to head football coach at the University since Bob Breitbard led the Aztecs in 1945.
But it is much more than Craft's ties that earned him the position. It is his proven ability to lead and achieve success consistently that has put him at the helm of a program that has historically produced some of the nation's top talent.
Craft's first item of business will be to sign players. Players like Will Blackwell, Az-zahir Hakim, Billy Blanton, Kyle Turley and Ephraim Salaam, all of whom flourished at SDSU under Craft's offensive system that resulted in the Aztecs averaging over 30 points per game during his three-year tenure as offensive coordinator and produced consecutive eight-win seasons in 1995 and '96.
And if the results he achieved at Palomar College are any indication, Craft should have no problem luring blue-chip talent to San Diego State.
During his tenure at Palomar, Craft led the Comets to three National Championships, three state championships and an 8-2 record in bowl games over the past 10 years alone. The 2001 season has been just as remarkable for the five-time state coach of the year, whose 10-1 team is once again playing for a state title against San Francisco City College this Saturday.
Craft joined the staff at Palomar almost immediately after graduating from SDSU with a bachelor in physical education in 1977, serving as the Comets' quarterbacks and receivers coach until being elevated to head coach in 1983.
Craft and his wife, Kathy, also a San Diego State graduate, have three children, including daughter, Lacey Jaye, a 19-year-old freshman softball player at Palomar and sons Kevin, a sophomore quarterback who also plays basketball and baseball at Valley Center High School, and Kyle, currently in the seventh grade.