Gary Barnett

College coach infobox
Name = Gary Barnett

---

ImageWidth = 220px
Caption =
DateOfBirth = Birth date and age|1946|5|23|mf=y
Birthplace = flagicon|Florida Lakeland, FL
DateOfDeath =
Sport = Football
College =
Title =
CurrentRecord =
OverallRecord = 92-95-2
Awards = 1995, 1996 Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year (AP)
2001, 2004 Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year (AP)
Championships = 1995, 1996 Big Ten Championship
2001 Big 12 Conference Championship
CFbDWID = 105
Player = Y
Years = 1966-1969
Team = Missouri
Position = WR
Coach = Y
CoachYears = 1982-83
1991-98
1999-2005
CoachTeams = Fort Lewis College
Northwestern
Colorado
FootballHOF =

Gary Barnett (born May 23, 1946 in Lakeland, FL) is a college football head coach. He was the head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats from 1992 to 1999. He left Northwestern for the Colorado Buffaloes, where he was head coach from 1999 to 2005, though he was suspended briefly in the 2004 offseason due to events stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct by several members of the football team.cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Central/02/19/colorado.football/ | title=Sixth rape allegation surfaces at CU | publisher=CNN | date=20 February 2004 | accessdate=2006-12-01]

Background

Barnett went to high school at Parkway Central in Chesterfield, Missouri. Barnett graduated from the University of Missouri in 1969 with a bachelors degree in social studies. He continued on to get his masters degree in 1971 in education. Barnett played wide receiver for Missouri from 1966–1969. He lettered his senior year under coach Dan Devine.

Coaching

Barnett started his coaching career at the University of Missouri as a graduate assistant from 1969–1971 under coach Al Onofrio. After he graduated, he was a successful high school coach at Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado for eleven years (9 as head coach). His teams won 6 conference titles and reached the state semi-finals twice (1980 and 1981). Barnett then began his head coaching at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. After two seasons as head coach, he left on February 20, 1984 to become an assistant coach at Colorado under head coach Bill McCartney. He was the running backs coach for the first season, but switched to quarterbacks and fullbacks coach for the next 7 seasons. On December 3, 1990, he was promoted to Offensive Coordinator and his first game as OC was against Notre Dame in the 1991 Orange Bowl which Colorado won to earn their first and only NCAA Division I-A national football championship.

Northwestern

Later in 1991, he left Colorado to become the head coach at Northwestern, then a perennial doormat team. In 1995, Barnett led Northwestern to the Big Ten Conference title and the 1996 Rose Bowl, their first since 1949. The Wildcats lost 41–32 to USC [http://www.tournamentofroses.com/history/gamescores.asp] . The following year, the Wildcats reached the Florida Citrus Bowl, losing 48–28 to Tennessee. Barnett turned around a program that holds the record for longest losing streak in Division I-A to a championship caliber team.

Colorado

In 1999, Barnett left Northwestern after eight seasons to become the 22nd head coach of Colorado. His career at Colorado was generally successful, but a recruiting scandal tarnished his reputation. Colorado was alleged to have enticed recruits to come to Colorado with sex and alcohol during recruiting visits causing the school to self-impose harsher recruiting rules than any other Division I-A school. That scandal, coupled with Barnett's dismissive comments about former placekicker Katie Hnida, who alleged that she had been raped by a teammate, led to Barnett's temporary suspension in 2004 during the off-season. Barnett was reinstated before the start of the 2004 season, and went on to coach the team to an 8–5 record, earning Big 12 Coach of the Year honors along the way. Barnett is more commonly known for these two events than his coaching performance.

Barnett continued as coach in 2005, leading the Buffaloes to a 7–2 start. However, on December 9, 2005, following consecutive losses to Iowa State and Nebraska in the Buffaloes' last two regular-season games, and a 70–3 blowout by the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 championship game, Barnett's contract was bought out in a $3 million settlement. Colorado then went on to play in the Champs Sports Bowl losing to Clemson. The loss is officially credited to Barnett, even though he was no longer with Colorado.

Colorado was the Big 12 North Champion 4 of the 7 years under Barnett, and Big 12 Champion one of those years (2001). Colorado was also ranked #2 in the nation and part of a controversy with the BCS Poll in the 2001 season when the Nebraska Cornhuskers were selected ahead of Colorado for the National Championship game, even though Colorado had just beat Nebraska 62–36.

In June 2007, the Buffaloes were placed under probation for two years and fined $100,000 for undercharging 133 student-athletes for meals over a six year span (2000–01 to 2005–06 encompassing Barnett's tenure at Colorado) resulting in the major infraction.Cite web | url=http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2911946 | title=Colorado put on probation, fined $100,000 for undercharging meals | publisher="ESPN.com" | date=2007-06-21 | accessdate=2007-06-21] The football program, with 86 of the 133 student-athletes involved, also lost one scholarship for the next three seasons.

Record

CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name = Fort Lewis Raiders
conf = NAIA Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
startyear = 1982
endyear = 1983CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1982
name = Fort Lewis
overall = 4-5-1
conference = 3-4-1
confstanding = 5thCFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1983
name = Fort Lewis
overall = 4-6
conference = 4-4
confstanding = 4thCFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name = Fort Lewis
overall = 8-11-1
confrecord = CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name = Northwestern
conf = Big Ten
startyear = 1992
endyear = 1998CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1992
name = Northwestern
overall = 3-8
conference = 3-5
confstanding = 6thCFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1993
name = Northwestern
overall = 2-9
conference = 0-8
confstanding = 10thCFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1994
name = Northwestern
overall = 3-7-1
conference = 2-6
confstanding = 10thCFB Yearly Record Entry
championship = conference
year = 1995
name = Northwestern
overall = 10-2
conference = 8-0
confstanding = 1st
bowl = Y
bowlname = Rose Bowl
bowlopp = Southern California
bowloutcome = L, 41-32
ranking = 7
ranking2 = 8CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship = conference
year = 1996
name = Northwestern
overall = 9-3
conference = 7-1
confstanding = T-1st
bowl = Y
bowlname = Comp USA Citrus Bowl
bowlopp = Tennessee
bowloutcome = L, 48-28
ranking = 16
ranking2 = 15CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1997
name = Northwestern
overall = 5-7
conference = 3-5
confstanding = 8thCFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1998
name = Northwestern
overall = 3-9
conference = 0-8
confstanding = 11thCFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name = Northwestern
overall = 35-45-1
confrecord = CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name = Colorado
conf = Big 12
startyear = 1999
endyear = 2005CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1999
name = Colorado
overall = 7-5
conference = 5-3
confstanding = 3rd (North Division
bowl = Y
bowlname = Insight.com Bowl
bowloutcome = W, 62-28CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 2000
name = Colorado
overall = 3-8
conference = 3-5
confstanding = 4th (North Division)CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship = conference
year = 2001
name = Colorado
overall = 10-3
conference = 7-1
confstanding = 1st
bowl = Y
bowlname = Fiesta Bowl
bowloutcome = L, 38-16
bcsbowl = yes
ranking = 9
ranking2 = 9CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 2002
name = Colorado
overall = 9-5
conference = 7-1
confstanding = 1st (North Division)
championship = division
bowl = Y
bowlname = Alamo Bowl
bowloutcome = L, 31-28 (OT)
ranking = 21
ranking2 = 20CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 2003
name = Colorado
overall = 5-7
conference = 3-5
confstanding = T-4th (North Division)CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 2004
name = Colorado
overall = 8-5
conference = 4-4
confstanding = 1st (North Division)
championship = division
bowl = Y
bowlname = EV1.net Houston Bowl
bowloutcome = W, 33-28CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 2005
name = Colorado
overall = 7-5
conference = 5-3
confstanding = 1st (North Division)
championship = division
bowl = Y
bowlname = Champs Sports Bowl
bowloutcome = L, 19-10CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name = Colorado
overall = 49-39
confrecord = 34-22

After Colorado

He operates the Gary Barnett Foundation which was formed in February 2005. The foundation is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization dedicated to the support of educational programs for economically disadvantaged and at-risk youth. There were rumors that Missouri was thinking of hiring Barnett during the 2005 season. [http://www3.buffzone.com/blogs/index.cfm/user/kringo/blogs/entry/alias/barnett_to_missouri_43 Source] He began working as a TV commentator for the BCS show on Fox Sports Net in 2006, and continues to do so to this day. Barnett also is a commentator for Sports USA.

ee also

* Colorado Buffaloes football
* Northwestern Wildcats football
* 2005 Colorado Buffaloes football team

External links

* [http://www.garybarnettfoundation.org Gary Barnett Foundation]

References

* [http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=3854&SPID=255&DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=22897&Q_SEASON=2005 University of Colorado Biography]
* [http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ap-colorado-barnett&prov=ap&type=lgns Associated Press story about Barnett's firing]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2250872 ESPN Article About Barnett's firing]