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Colorado Reportedly Ready to Fire Coach Barnett
Gary Barnett apparently could survive a scandal but not a woeful end to the 2005 season.
According to a report in the Denver Post on Wednesday, Barnett will not be retained as the football coach of the Buffaloes, who lost their last three games by a combined 130-22.
Colorado, which won the Big 12 Conference North Division for the fourth time in five years, began the season 7-2 before concluding its season with losses to Iowa State, Nebraska and Texas, including a 70-3 manhandling by the Longhorns in last Saturday's conference title game in Houston.
Barnett told KKFN Radio in Denver it was news to him and that he was preparing the Buffaloes to take on Clemson in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando on December 27.
"No one at the University of Colorado has said one word to me about not being the coach," Barnett told the station. "(Athletic director) Mike Bohn and I have had an agreement since ... September to not play out any of our negotiations or any of our talks regarding my contract, or an extension of my contract, in the media.
"This certainly isn't coming from me and I fully trust that is isn't coming from Mike. So I don't know where it's coming from. Whether it's true or not, I haven't been told that, and I haven't had any inkling from anybody that it is true."
The 59-year-old Barnett, who is 49-38 in seven seasons in Boulder, came under fire for insensitive comments made about kicker Katie Hnida, a walk-on in 1999 - his first season - who said she had been raped by a teammate. Other women alleged they had been sexually assaulted by players and recruits, though no charges were field.
Barnett was put on paid administrative leave on February 18, 2004, while a panel investigated charges about the program, but he was reinstated just over three months later.
Source: AP
According to a report in the Denver Post on Wednesday, Barnett will not be retained as the football coach of the Buffaloes, who lost their last three games by a combined 130-22.
Colorado, which won the Big 12 Conference North Division for the fourth time in five years, began the season 7-2 before concluding its season with losses to Iowa State, Nebraska and Texas, including a 70-3 manhandling by the Longhorns in last Saturday's conference title game in Houston.
Barnett told KKFN Radio in Denver it was news to him and that he was preparing the Buffaloes to take on Clemson in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando on December 27.
"No one at the University of Colorado has said one word to me about not being the coach," Barnett told the station. "(Athletic director) Mike Bohn and I have had an agreement since ... September to not play out any of our negotiations or any of our talks regarding my contract, or an extension of my contract, in the media.
"This certainly isn't coming from me and I fully trust that is isn't coming from Mike. So I don't know where it's coming from. Whether it's true or not, I haven't been told that, and I haven't had any inkling from anybody that it is true."
The 59-year-old Barnett, who is 49-38 in seven seasons in Boulder, came under fire for insensitive comments made about kicker Katie Hnida, a walk-on in 1999 - his first season - who said she had been raped by a teammate. Other women alleged they had been sexually assaulted by players and recruits, though no charges were field.
Barnett was put on paid administrative leave on February 18, 2004, while a panel investigated charges about the program, but he was reinstated just over three months later.
Source: AP