Gary Barnett

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This article refers to the college football coach. For Gary Barnett, the President of Extell Development, see Gary Barnett (developer)

Gary Barnett

Gary Barnett arriving at his hotel before the 2002 Fiesta Bowl on January 1, 2002.
Date of birth	May 23, 1946
Place of birth	Lakeland, Florida
Sport	Football
College	None Currently
Title	None Currently
Record with Team	N/A
Overall Record	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   won	1995, 1996 Big Ten Championship 2001 Big 12 Conference Championship
Coaching Stats	College Football DataWarehouse
School as a player
1966-1969	Missouri
Position	Wide Receiver
Coaching positions
1982-83 1991-98 1999-2005	Fort Lewis College (D-II) Northwestern University (DI-A) Colorado (DI-A)

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 largely to a recruiting scandal.^[1]

Contents 1 Coaching 2 Record 3 Background 4 Current 5 See also 6 External link 7 References

[edit] Coaching

Barnett started his coaching career at 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. Later in 1991, he left Colorado after eight seasons to become the head coach at Northwestern.

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 [1]. 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.

In 1999, Barnett left Northwestern 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.

[edit] Record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl Game	Bowl Opponent	Outcome	Rank#
Fort Lewis Raiders (NAIA Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) (1982 — 1983)
1982	Fort Lewis	4-5-1	3-4-1	5th
1983	Fort Lewis	4-6	4-4	4th
At Fort Lewis:		8-11-1
Northwestern (Big Ten) (1991 — 1998)
1992	Northwestern	3-8	3-5	6th
1993	Northwestern	2-9	0-8	10th
1994	Northwestern	4-6-1	2-6	10th
1995	Northwestern	10-2	8-0	1st	Rose Bowl	Southern California	L, 41-32
1996	Northwestern	9-3	7-1	T-1st	Comp USA Citrus Bowl	Tennessee	L, 48-28
1997	Northwestern	5-7	3-5	8th
1998	Northwestern	3-9	0-8	11th
At Northwestern:		35-45-1
Colorado (Big 12) (1999 — 2005)
1999	Colorado	7-5	5-3	3rd (North Division	Insight.com Bowl	#25 Boston College	W, 62-28
2000	Colorado	3-8	3-5	4th (North Division)
2001	Colorado	10-3	7-1	1st	Fiesta Bowl †	#2 Oregon	L, 38-16	#9
2002	Colorado	9-5	7-1	1st (North Division)	Alamo Bowl	Wisconsin	L, 31-28 (OT)	#21
2003	Colorado	5-7	3-5	T-4th (North Division)
2004	Colorado	8-5	4-4	1st (North Division)	EV1.net Houston Bowl	UTEP	W, 33-28
2005	Colorado	7-5	5-3	1st (North Division)	Champs Sports Bowl	#23 Clemson	L, 19-10
At Colorado:		49-39	34-22
Career:		85-82-1
National Championship          Conference Title
†Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season.

[edit] Background

Barnett graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1969 with a bachelors degree in social studies. 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.

[edit] Current

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. Source He has been a TV commentator for the BCS show on Fox Sports Net for the 2006 season.

[edit] See also

• Colorado Buffaloes football
• Northwestern Wildcats football
• 2005 Colorado Buffaloes football team

[edit] External link

• Gary Barnett Foundation

[edit] References

1. ^ "Sixth rape allegation surfaces at CU", CNN, 20 February 2004. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.

• University of Colorado Biography
• Associated Press story about Barnett's firing
• ESPN Article About Barnett's firing

Preceded by Jay McNitt	Fort Lewis College Head Football Coach 1981–1984	Succeeded by Bill Cooke
Preceded by Francis Peay	Northwestern University Head Football Coach 1992–1999	Succeeded by Randy Walker
Preceded by Rich Brooks	Paul "Bear" Bryant Award 1995	Succeeded by Bruce Snyder
Preceded by Joe Paterno	Walter Camp Coach of the Year 1995	Succeeded by Bruce Snyder
Preceded by Rick Neuheisel	University of Colorado Head Football Coach 1999–2005	Succeeded by Dan Hawkins