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Mike Craft

Coach Mike Craft has almost four decades of professional experience including  more than 10 seasons as a high school and college coach -- training and developing young men for success on the football field and in life.   
     After spending last season as quarterback coach, he returned to coaching the  running backs, a position he held at Johnson C. Smith in 2010.  During that first stint, he worked with Head Coach Maurice Flowers who was offensive coordinator at that time.  While coaching at Johnson C. Smith University, he mentored All-CIAA running back Dedrick Anderson.  Last season he coached new quarterbacks coach Tyrell Jackson, who in the season opener was named HBCU National Player of the Week.  After Jackson was lost to injury in week two of the season, Craft guided sophomore Robert Adams who started six games and led the Golden Bulls to four wins before missing the final two games with injury.  In those crucial games, freshman Jamere Cherry was able to lead the team to two wins including victories over Winston-Salem State and Livingstone.   
Craft also spent more than a decade coaching in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools serving as offensive coordinator at Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology and Rocky River High School.  He had an opportunity to coach several division one players: All-Americans Germone Hopper (Clemson) and Nick Dawson (Louisville), as well as Keydrick Davis (UNC), Cayson Collins (UNC), Thomas Gordon (Furman), Jonathan Ifedi (Georgia Southern), Korion Sharpe (NC A&T) and Kendall Stanley (UNC-Charlotte).  Craft also coached three current JCSU players in high school including Trevion Graham, Demetri Washington and James Brown. 
He began his football playing career as a standout athlete in the state of Virginia at Bayside High School, earning team MVP honors and second team all-state honors as a defensive lineman.  After high school, Craft received a full scholarship to the University of Richmond.  In 1984 and 1985, Craft was a stalwart on the offensive line for a team that had back to back 8-win seasons and at one point in his senior year was ranked number one in Division 1-AA.  He graduated with a BA in journalism  
For 18 years (200-2018), Craft worked on the Carolina Panthers broadcast team in Charlotte, NC.  He became known for his in-depth analysis of the game and his ability to educate the fan base on television, radio and the internet.  In 2017, he was promoted to executive producer for the Panthers Television Network.  
He and his wife of 35 years, Sonya, have four children, Marshall, Matthew, Mikaela and Morgan.Â