Krieger: Money counts prominently in the decision about Barnett

Published November 28, 2005 at midnight

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Mike Bohn doesn't want to talk about Gary Barnett's status. He didn't want to talk about it when he was hired as Colorado's athletic director in April and he doesn't want to talk about it now.

You don't have to be a CU Nobel Prize winner to figure out why.

"I really don't have an interest in talking about it and let me tell you why - because I feel like we've got a lot of football to play yet and talking about Gary and all this is really a major distraction for us," Bohn said Sunday.

It has been a little more than seven months since Bohn was hired in the wake of controversy, personifying if not declaring a fresh start for CU football. But he inherited Barnett, the coach during the controversy. He also inherited the reality that CU, beset by financial troubles, could not afford to fire its football coach and pay off his contract even if it wanted to.

Sometime between April, when Bohn was noncommittal, and now, when he alludes to but declines to restate his support, he has apparently moved into Barnett's corner, although it's not precisely clear when or why this happened.

In view of the fact that CU cannot afford to pay off Barnett's contract, which Bohn acknowledged Sunday, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that he supports Barnett because he has no choice.

Bohn disputes this, saying the financial realities are only one factor among many. He points to many positive developments this season - among them 1,200 new members of the Buff Club, $10.2 million in ticket sales and another Big 12 North Division title - but if CU cannot fire Barnett, what difference would it make if these developments had not occurred?

CU still owes Barnett a little more than $3 million, including the $2 million retention bonus he gets at the end of next season for completing his current deal. This doesn't sound like a prohibitive sum, but if you're aware of CU's financial issues, you might understand why it has made Barnett fireproof.

You might also understand why any new deal will replace guarantees, such as the retention bonus, with incentives for success.

"That's an agreement that I inherited and that was in a very different time in the history of the institution and in the history of the football program and I certainly wouldn't want to second-guess it," Bohn said. "It is what it is, and I think that clearly we have a little different culture and climate associated with agreements in the future."

To many CU football fans, Bohn's support for Barnett seemed a no-brainer three weeks ago, when the Buffs were 7-2 and nationally ranked. To some of them, it is more debatable now, after a dismal finish to the regular season against Iowa State and Nebraska, even though Iowa State's failure to win its finale handed CU the North title.

Complicating the calculation is the fact that Barnett is at the center of two entirely separate debates:

One is whether he remains, in the wake of the sex-and-alcohol controversy that engulfed his program, a polarizing figure that discourages some potential boosters and supporters from getting involved.

The other is whether, as a coach and recruiter, he is capable of leading CU football back to competitiveness on a national scale.

Bohn is adamant that Barnett is not a reason some potential boosters have withheld support.

"In fact, I think it's quite the contrary," he said. "I think that a vast majority of our constituents are supportive of Gary and they recognize the amount of progress that we've got to make in support of our program - regardless of the coaching situation, that we've got to build that fundamental base."

Bohn cites progress selling the new luxury boxes and club seats at Folsom Field as well as excellent recent graduation rates for the football program. He does not mention a continuing difficulty selling out CU home games, even when the team is playing well.

He praises Barnett's leadership in taking responsibility for the rout by Nebraska. He does not mention that Barnett's refusal to accept any responsibility during the controversy helped make it the polarizing event it was.

If Bohn is preparing to offer Barnett a contract extension and is holding off so as not to distract from the football business at hand, Barnett and his staff might be among those questioning his logic.

Eleven recruits were in Boulder for the Nebraska game. Barnett was in the homes of in-state recruits Sunday night. From any or all of them he might have heard the question planted by rival coaches: With a contract that expires at the end of next season, will he be around two years from now?

"You know what? Our coaches and our recruits know exactly how we feel about Gary, and they've known for over a month about how we feel about Gary's future," Bohn said. "The media makes a big deal about recruiting, but you know what? Our recruiting is going very, very well."

I've never met a college coach who thought a short-term contract wasn't a serious problem in recruiting, but Barnett is hardly in a position to say so as his fate hangs in the balance.

I am far from Barnett's biggest fan, but I will say this on his behalf: It is unfair to hit him from both sides. If you believe he responded to the controversy appropriately, you cannot blame him for a failure to compete for a national championship in its wake. It will take some time to recover from the hit to CU's reputation and to measure the effect of the recruiting reforms implemented since.

On the other hand, if you believe he failed to respond to the controversy appropriately, no amount of success on the field is likely to change your opinion.

For every person who believes Barnett is the victim of a vast feminist/media conspiracy, there is one who believes he is unbelievably fortunate, somehow surviving the controversy when the president, chancellor and athletic director did not, then backing into two division titles when every other member of the division fell down and could not get up.

I agree with those who say he's done a remarkable coaching job just to be competitive in the wake of the controversy. The same bunker mentality that hurt him during the maelstrom has helped him immeasurably since.

I also agree with those who say he continues to be a polarizing figure. Even Bohn acknowledged this is at least a danger in the debate over the state of the program.

"What I'm trying to do is ensure that it's not polarized around Gary," he said. "It's more than about Gary. There's a lot of great coaches in this league that are well-paid and programs that raise a lot of money and sell a lot of tickets and work real hard at creating an environment to be successful and they're not successful right now. So it's really trying to manage expectations."

In the end, that $2 million retention bonus at the end of Barnett's contract almost certainly saved him when the university was clearing the decks. It has also put Bohn in a very difficult position. If Barnett is fireproof, he pretty much has to be extended.

Apparently, Bohn has decided that is the right thing to do anyway. Whether he would have come to the same conclusion had he been free to go the other way we may never know.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

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