Thomas Jay Craft (born November 12, 1953) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

coach. He is the head football coach at

Riverside Community College Riverside City College (RCC) is a public community college in Riverside, California. The college is part of the Riverside Community College District, as well as the larger California Community Colleges System. History RCC first opened in 1916 at ...

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

. Craft served as the head football coach at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

from 2002 to 2005 and at

Palomar College Palomar College is a public community college in San Diego County, California. The main campus is in San Marcos and three centers and four education sites are located elsewhere throughout north San Diego County. The largest of these by student ...

in San Marcos, CA from 1983 to 2000. Craft has also been the associate head coach and offensive coordinator at

Mount San Antonio College Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) is a public community college in southern California, located in Walnut in eastern Los Angeles County. It offers more than 260 degree and certificate programs, 25 support programs, and more than 50 stud ...

Walnut, California Walnut is a city in the eastern part of Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 29,172, and in 2019 the population was estimated at 29,685. The greater Walnut Valley is located betw ...

. Under his tenure, San Diego State developed a reputation of playing the tough teams well but lacked consistency and never had a winning season. In 2004, San Diego State lost to Michigan 24–21, and in 2005, where it pushed Ohio State at home, and lost 24–21 to TCU. San Diego State fired Craft at the end of the 2005 season. Craft is a graduate of Pacific Grove High School, in

Pacific Grove, California Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, in the United States. The population at the 2020 census was 15,090. Pacific Grove is located between Point Pinos and Monterey. Pacific Grove has numerous Victorian-era houses, ...

, and thereafter played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

at San Diego State. After serving as an assistant coach at Palomar from 1977 to 1982 and with the school openly questioning its commitment to football, he took over head coaching duties in 1983. After a pair of 4–6 seasons, the Comets' fortunes began to improve. By the time Craft left the San Marcos school for the Aztec coordinator's job, Palomar was coming off a three-year stretch of 31–2, had an offense ranked among the nation's top five for five consecutive years and was sporting two national championships. Craft compiled an overall record of 115–56 and three national junior college football championships at Palomar. At Palomar, Craft taught and coached seven All-American quarterbacks, which include: Duffy Daughtery, Scott Barrick,

Brett Salisbury Brett Jon Salisbury (born October 11, 1968) is a former college football quarterback at University of Oregon, BYU, and Wayne State College. Early life Salisbury, the younger brother of former NFL quarterback Sean Salisbury, grew up in Escondid ...

, Andy Loveland,

Tom Luginbill Tom Luginbill (born January 3, 1974) is a college football analyst for ESPN. Luginbill grew up in Tempe, Arizona and San Diego. He is the son of the professional and college coach Al Luginbill. Playing career Luginbill was the starting q ...

, Greg Cicero, and Andy Goodenough.

Head coaching record

College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craft, Tom 1953 births Living people American football quarterbacks Monterey Peninsula Lobos football players Sportspeople from Iowa City, Iowa San Diego State Aztecs football coaches San Diego State Aztecs football players Riverside City Tigers football coaches People from Pacific Grove, California