Barnhart emerges from under desk and gives review of football season & status of program

[JHB4UK]

Courier Journal:

“We’ve gone 2-10, 5-7, 5-7. Would like to be better than that, but I think that we’ve done some things that have given foundational pieces to where we’re trying to go. I don’t want to lose sight of those. The recruiting that Mark and his staff have in place, the young people that we have redshirted for this year that will be on the field for us next year, the recruiting that’s currently going on with this class for 16 is very good and really solid. Excited about that. The football stadium renovation was real important to our program. It gave us a facility that we can be proud of and our fans can be proud of, and we’re not done. We’ll continue to tweak that a little bit as we go forward. As we have the ability and finances to do all that, we’ll continue to tweak that. Then the training center opens in July. So there’s good momentum in that for us. What we’ve got to do is turn the momentum into Ws.

Herald-Leader:

“We all wanted to be in postseason play, that didn’t happen,” Barnhart said after UK’s season likely ended at 5-7 in a 38-24 loss to Louisville. “Clearly everyone’s got some skin in the game in terms of accountability. We want to make sure we address those pieces and how we get better. Everyone’s frustrated.”

When asked if there would be staff changes in the football program, Barnhart said he leaves those decisions up to his head coaches, instead acting as an adviser.

In his mind, an athletic director asks pointed questions to help the coach make decisions.

Barnhart did meet some with Stoops on Saturday evening after the Cats blew a 21-point lead to Louisville at Commonwealth Stadium. They spoke again on Sunday and will meet again soon.

Decisions ultimately will come from Stoops.

“Those are Mark’s calls,” Barnhart said. “He’s the CEO of our football program. … We’re not going to make any decisions in emotion. We’re going to make decisions after it’s calmed. … Let’s make sure we’re making decisions after we’ve let it settle and then work our way through it.”

 

[MrKentucky]

Don't think I can find fault with any of those comments given the obvious reality of Stoops' contract. I can find fault with that contract.

 

[JHB4UK]

Neither interview is anything revealing or anything fans want to here, but that is Barnhart. Making an excuse out of Boom being out a couple games for injury & 1 against 1-AA EKU due to him quitting? Fans ain't gonna keep buying tickets from the eternal promise of "improved recruiting".

Anyone who thinks Stoops is on any kind of hot seat in 2016 is sadly mistaken. We could go 2-10 and Stoops will be our coach in 2017.

 

[DACats86]

Those are actually pretty strong words from Barnhart given his usual rhetoric.

 

[Glenn Fohr]

Lots of meetings, so is Barney getting really involved now?

 

[JHB4UK]

Those are actually pretty strong words from Barnhart given his usual rhetoric.

Not exactly the ultimatum he gave Brooks publically after his 3rd year here though

Can't find the link, but it was blunt saying that NCAA punishments were over, sanctions were over, excuses were finished, time to win

 

[Shavers48]

"tweak that a little bit" does not sound like we're focused much on climbing out of SEC cellar. pathetic.

 

[LowCountryCat]

"We’re not going to make any decisions in emotion. We’re going to make decisions after it’s calmed. … Let’s make sure we’re making decisions after we’ve let it settle and then work our way through it.”

REALLY, MITCH? Is that what you did when you gave Stoops $18 million halfway through year TWO?

God what a LIAR.

 

[richbrookstomato]

Mitch KNOWS this football program is tied at the hip of Mark Stoops for at least the next 2 seasons. That's why he is going to make every excuse in his power to keep the fans coming to games. That contract extension was unbelievably ridiculous considering the fact that this staff has won 1 SEC game(Vandy in 14) in Oct. & Nov. during his tenure as HC.

 

[Anon1639625937]

Mitch Barnhart, the AD of the year recipient...Stoops is his hire. At this point, what do you expect him to say to the "public" other than he's behind Coach Stoops. Like it or not, Mitch said all the right things.

 

[UK Cats Rock]

I got a lot out of those statements in a good way and appreciate them. Thanks for posting. Sounds to me he is handling it the correct way. But then again, I'm not a D1 AD, but sounds good to me.

 

[JasonS.]

The football stadium renovation was real important to our program. It gave us a facility that we can be proud of and our fans can be proud of, and we’re not done. We’ll continue to tweak that a little bit as we go forward.

Really hope this means a moderately less awful sound system at Commonwealth.

 

[NKYWildcat]

There is nothing said there that moves the needle one way or the other for me. As...expected.

The new facility card is played, however.

 

[Cats_2010]

Neither interview is anything revealing or anything fans want to here, but that is Barnhart. Making an excuse out of Boom being out a couple games for injury & 1 against 1-AA EKU due to him quitting? Fans ain't gonna keep buying tickets from the eternal promise of "improved recruiting".

Anyone who thinks Stoops is on any kind of hot seat in 2016 is sadly mistaken. We could go 2-10 and Stoops will be our coach in 2017.

Sadly your are correct and even more sadly is the probability of going 2-10 is quite strong.

 

[kb22stang]

Neither interview is anything revealing or anything fans want to here, but that is Barnhart. Making an excuse out of Boom being out a couple games for injury & 1 against 1-AA EKU due to him quitting? Fans ain't gonna keep buying tickets from the eternal promise of "improved recruiting".

Anyone who thinks Stoops is on any kind of hot seat in 2016 is sadly mistaken. We could go 2-10 and Stoops will be our coach in 2017.

Barnhart is exactly right and what he said is what anyone with a brain would think in this situation. You people jumping off a bridge because one game, or margin of victory are ignoring the reality that the program has improved under Stoops. Maybe at your predetermined pace, but it is improving.

if fans don't buy tickets that's on them, our fans have never really supported the program anyway, at least not longer than one half at a time. As soon as Stoops wins 6 games 90% of those fans will be back on board, for the first half.

 

[theoledog]

our fans have never really supported the program anyway, at least not longer than one half at a time. As soon as Stoops wins 6 games 90% of those fans will be back on board, for the first half.

what is your born on date? 2008?

 

[AirRaidFan_rivals164446]

Or he could have said, 'In light of the fact that Mark has a $15,000,000 buyout and contract extension after one season, we are stuck in the current predicament. We apologize for the error in judgement and in the future there will be no contract adjustments for any FB personnel until we earn a bowl berth.'

 

[jc2010]

Who's desk?

 

[Soupbean]

Athletic Directors are no different than fans who make their decisions and react to what they can see at the time. At the time he gave Stoops the extension it was arguably the most optimistic time in the last 40 years of UK football and he was trying to build on the momentum to show stability to help recruiting and stave off rumors that Stoops would be a candidate to move on here or there as was the talk at the time.

Just like most everybody here went from "Stoops is King" to "Stoops is Poops" in 6 short weeks, Mitch has had to react to the same change of circumstances. People have to stop ignoring history and circumstances that caused decisions to be made at the time they were made. Like Ive had t tell myself before, Mitch or Coach didn't make bad decisions just to ruin our day. I'm sure Mitch didn't wake up after our good start and say, "You know what, things are going too good, I think what I'll do is take MORE money and give it to Coach so that he can mess this whole thing up and piss off our customers." No he was trying to take the momentum we had and capitalize on it to take it into even higher gear.

It's still his decision to live with and manage under the changed circumstances, and it's okay to question whether it was a good idea or an overreaction by Mitch at the time, but stop with the "what an idiot, what was he thinking" stuff.

 

[PowerofPelphrey]

That was a funny thread title!

 

[Shavers48]

Athletic Directors are no different than fans who make their decisions and react to what they can see at the time. At the time he gave Stoops the extension it was arguably the most optimistic time in the last 40 years of UK football and he was trying to build on the momentum to show stability to help recruiting and stave off rumors that Stoops would be a candidate to move on here or there as was the talk at the time.

Just like most everybody here went from "Stoops is King" to "Stoops is Poops" in 6 short weeks, Mitch has had to react to the same change of circumstances. People have to stop ignoring history and circumstances that caused decisions to be made at the time they were made. Like Ive had t tell myself before, Mitch or Coach didn't make bad decisions just to ruin our day. I'm sure Mitch didn't wake up after our good start and say, "You know what, things are going too good, I think what I'll do is take MORE money and give it to Coach so that he can mess this whole thing up and piss off our customers." No he was trying to take the momentum we had and capitalize on it to take it into even higher gear.

It's still his decision to live with and manage under the changed circumstances, and it's okay to question whether it was a good idea or an overreaction by Mitch at the time, but stop with the "what an idiot, what was he thinking" stuff.

but if he gave the extention in the middle of the year, who would have come after him at that time? no one, so it wasn't necessary. why not wait until closer to season end?
might have kept options open after seeing the weak 2H of season. Mitch went all in before the flop.

 

[Soupbean]

He could have and May should have. Like I say that's a fair question, but again I think the answer is because he was caught up in the momentum as we'll and I believe was conscious of recruiting and had heard the reports of negative recruiting saying Stoops would move on to bigger and better and wanted to give The staff that bullet it diffuse that on the recruiting trail. I know it's hard to remember now but then we really had a buzz going and recruiting seemed like it was better than ever with Young, Jackson and others stating their 100% commitment no matter what. I think Mitch got caught up in that and wanted to remove any roadblocks to what they had going.

 

[KyCatFan_rivals45723]

You know it would be one thing if we looked well coached, but just not having the talent to match up. Unfortunately, we look horribly coached to go along with having less talent. If we had someone that could coach up the players, there is no doubt in my mind we could have won 3 to 4 more games. Hopefully a bunch of people don't buy season tickets next season and just buy tickets to individual games. So when we crap the bed again and fans stop coming to the games, Mitch can't sit back and point to tickets sold over attendance. You have to hit him in the checkbook to make a difference.

 

[zannmann]

He could have waited on the contract extension. It is against NCAA rules to go after an active coach midseason. Mitch did a knee jerk reaction and it may cost him.

 

[Deeeefense]

Athletic Directors are no different than fans who make their decisions and react to what they can see at the time. At the time he gave Stoops the extension it was arguably the most optimistic time in the last 40 years of UK football and he was trying to build on the momentum to show stability to help recruiting and stave off rumors that Stoops would be a candidate to move on here or there as was the talk at the time.

Just like most everybody here went from "Stoops is King" to "Stoops is Poops" in 6 short weeks, Mitch has had to react to the same change of circumstances. People have to stop ignoring history and circumstances that caused decisions to be made at the time they were made. Like Ive had t tell myself before, Mitch or Coach didn't make bad decisions just to ruin our day. I'm sure Mitch didn't wake up after our good start and say, "You know what, things are going too good, I think what I'll do is take MORE money and give it to Coach so that he can mess this whole thing up and piss off our customers." No he was trying to take the momentum we had and capitalize on it to take it into even higher gear.

It's still his decision to live with and manage under the changed circumstances, and it's okay to question whether it was a good idea or an overreaction by Mitch at the time, but stop with the "what an idiot, what was he thinking" stuff.

Good perspective, and who knows Mitch may wind up looking smart in the end. Things can change very fast.

 

[ukalumni00]

Did not read it because I can care less what MB thinks or says anything related to football anymore. Under his watch, take out a few mediocre seasons under Brooks and the program has been complete crap. As I said in another post, Stoops gets two more years because of the contract and if he does not get the program fixed both Mitch and Stoops should be shown the door. It's about accountability now. Fans pay too much money to support this program and its failing results. The excuses from this administration have gone on too long. Either the program meets expectations (which are ridiculously low compared to the rest of the SEC except Vandy) or clean house and start over and we can wait another 40 years to see any resemblance of a SEC caliber team at KY.

 

[anon_q409idbs5m40a]

I can't wait to see the "kiss my a$$" letter from Mitch to the fans reminiscent of the one he wrote after Joke(r)'s team beat what was probably the worst UT team in history to come into Lexington.

 

[maysvilleky]

Weren't we going to "lose" Stoops to a bigger program unless we locked him down? That's what I heard people conjecture at the time.

 

[Longtrip]

We are on a collision course with a losing season - AGAIN!
But our coach continues to recruit very well.
In 2017 he will have to turn the corner in a big way OR CMS and Mitch will be run out of town.

 

[vhcat70]

You people jumping off a bridge because one game, or margin of victory are ignoring the reality that the program has improved under Stoops.

The one who needs their head examined is you. It's not about one game. It's about blown leads against ULL & LV, it's about even being behind EKU, it's about games that should have been won - V & AU, it's about getting blown out against a weak UGA. So which of those do you think the one game is?

 

[UK Cats Rock]

Athletic Directors are no different than fans who make their decisions and react to what they can see at the time. At the time he gave Stoops the extension it was arguably the most optimistic time in the last 40 years of UK football and he was trying to build on the momentum to show stability to help recruiting and stave off rumors that Stoops would be a candidate to move on here or there as was the talk at the time.

Just like most everybody here went from "Stoops is King" to "Stoops is Poops" in 6 short weeks, Mitch has had to react to the same change of circumstances. People have to stop ignoring history and circumstances that caused decisions to be made at the time they were made. Like Ive had t tell myself before, Mitch or Coach didn't make bad decisions just to ruin our day. I'm sure Mitch didn't wake up after our good start and say, "You know what, things are going too good, I think what I'll do is take MORE money and give it to Coach so that he can mess this whole thing up and piss off our customers." No he was trying to take the momentum we had and capitalize on it to take it into even higher gear.

It's still his decision to live with and manage under the changed circumstances, and it's okay to question whether it was a good idea or an overreaction by Mitch at the time, but stop with the "what an idiot, what was he thinking" stuff.

Excellent.

 

[Bird Watcher]

Always "tweaking".

 

[UK till Death]

If Stoops ultimately fails, Barnyard MUST accompany him out the door.

 

[Kyseminole]

Or he could have said, 'In light of the fact that Mark has a $15,000,000 buyout and contract extension after one season, we are stuck in the current predicament. We apologize for the error in judgement and in the future there will be no contract adjustments for any FB personnel until we earn a bowl berth.'

And who would you like to replace Stoops? He needs a full five years to change the culture at given the state it was in when he arrived. I would not give up on him yet.

 

[tmuck]

MJ said that Barney was quick to point out that UK beat last years SEC East Champ Mizzou. It doesn't matter that they were terrible this year, he just wants us to know that we beat a former SEC East champion on our way to 5 wins. Always trying to put lipstick on a turd. This Guy Smiley looking buffoon has to go before it's time to hire another Football coach again.

 

[ky8335]

In current UK football news:

 

[sluggercatfan]

And who would you like to replace Stoops? He needs a full five years to change the culture at given the state it was in when he arrived. I would not give up on him yet.

Jeff Brohm...Mike Leach

 

[LowCountryCat]

He could have and May should have. Like I say that's a fair question, but again I think the answer is because he was caught up in the momentum as we'll and I believe was conscious of recruiting and had heard the reports of negative recruiting saying Stoops would move on to bigger and better and wanted to give The staff that bullet it diffuse that on the recruiting trail. I know it's hard to remember now but then we really had a buzz going and recruiting seemed like it was better than ever with Young, Jackson and others stating their 100% commitment no matter what. I think Mitch got caught up in that and wanted to remove any roadblocks to what they had going.

No. Read his quote. He makes calm decisions, not emotional. He said it himself. Either he's a liar or his quote is fabricated.

 

[LowCountryCat]

And who would you like to replace Stoops? He needs a full five years to change the culture at given the state it was in when he arrived. I would not give up on him yet.

Jim Tressel, after one more season of Stoops.

 

[Barry MuCockinher]

What was really said........blah blah blah blah, rifle team is doing great, blah blah blah. Said it a million times. We won't have a winning fb program as long as Mitch is here