Question about Barnhart.....

[Poetax]

That doesn't mean that she can nix a potential transfer just because she thinks he's a "bad boy".

No no stench, I didn't realize your angle. We saw her first hand involvement with a walk on kid from California, he was hoping to earn a scolly after the first year but she stopped it from happening. If she doesn't like something legal or not, she trashes it.

 

[jc2010]

Not sure this article proves that Mitch wanted Cal but only quotes Todd as saying no. Only states he's name came up, I assume with many others as well. It does confirm that Cal was def not an option in 2007 and yet a 180 was done by hiring him in 2009. In fact Todd is on record saying he was certain Cal was clean. What changed? Did Cal's baggage become less or just less important now that the heat was on and a home run hire was a MUST

Maybe this Stoops experiment will make a home run hire a must for Mitch and company this time as well.

This makes it look to me as though they have to completely screw something up before they will get it right. Nothing changed at Memphis, it only changed at UK. They had completely screwed the pooch, so they had to investigate instead of going by reputation.

Makes it look like Todd and Mitch are both touching idiots. If that is how hard they work on such important hires, it is no wonder they have gotten more wrong than they have right

 

[zcats]

I joke about him having a holier than thou attitude (which he does) and the fact that he thinks college sports is a charity when in actuality it's a multi-million dollar business. He has consistently shown with his hires that he would rather hire a square that's coaching ability is average than a guy with an ego or some baggage that's a great coach. That's my beef and that's where these things about his morals come up (that and the fact that multiple players have come out over the years talking about how players are "domesticated" by Barnhart with the culture he has created over there).

My bigger beef is the fact that the guy is incompetent, plain and simple. I don't care if he goes to church ten times a week or if he goes out and sleezes around, I'm more concerned about getting an AD that is competent. When you're trying to hire a football coach at Kentucky you're going to have to think outside the box and be willing to take some coaches with baggage. Barnhart is capable of neither. That's my beef.

I couldn't agree more. Granted Lee Todd was a complete wuss as president and brought Mitch in with the order never to get close to getting into trouble after UK laid down for the NCAA over some moderate at worst violations. Barnhart has simply made a lot of bad decisions starting with giving Tubby a big buy out and raise after he had basically quit on the job and was shopping around and ending with giving Stoops another ridiculous contract as a career assistant whose only real success was in recruiting rankings. I just became convinced after watching the team last year that UK has no real commitment to competing in football. Big deal that they upgraded facilities, our facilities were decades out of date and the conference paid for them anyway with the SEC money. I believe that Mitch and the administration is more concerned with appearances and being proper than fielding a decent football program. His mismanagement of baseball and now women's basketball and the complete failure when he hired a sociopath to run our flagship basketball program is more evidence that the administration of the AD is weak.

 

[qwesley]

Link?

Source on Sandy Bell nearly quitting?

Why did Cal insist on his own Associate AD rather than deal with MB?

 

[Stenchymouse]

No no stench, I didn't realize your angle. We saw her first hand involvement with a walk on kid from California, he was hoping to earn a scolly after the first year but she stopped it from happening. If she doesn't like something legal or not, she trashes it.

I didn't know that she had the power to choose our players based on whether or not they meet her moral requirements.

I guess we have more issues than Barnhardt and Stoops.

I know one thing...

A school like UK won't ever succeed in football without taking some chances on kids.

 

[theoledog]

Mitch played college golf at Ottawa University (Kansas) and earned a masters’ in sports administration from Ohio University.

Ottawa University (OU) is a private, non-profit, faith-based liberal arts university located in Ottawa, Kansas, United States. It was founded in 1865 and is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. Ottawa has approximately 600 students on its residential campus in Ottawa, Kansas, with a total of about 7,000 students across all of its campuses and online

Like I say... Some really like the guy (Fuzz)... I get that... I'd probably like the guy also if I knew him... But a guy who plays golf at a 600 campus population University don't have much street cred with me as an athlete... Then he goes and gets an MBA in Sports Admin.... So what we got here is an AD/Accountant/Administrator who'll do what he's told, that'll keep his mouth shut.... That's just my opinion... But from the hires he's made, and some of the BS he's had to deal with I don't think the guy is anything more than a man doing mission work in the arena of sport.... I'm thinking there are lots of trump cards being played in the UK ADept...... Mitch, my opinion, is a weak AD... A really good guy, who's intentions are above reproach... And if UK was any good, then I'd accept the "doing it the right way" mantra...
My life experience tells me, the "doing it the right way theme", is most often used as an excuse by those loosing or falling behind...

Unfortunately for the fan the only trump card they can use is the one they hate using.= Don't buy a ticket.
What fan doesn't want to believe? Support the guys on the field or court? See good sport? Be positive?
None of us wants to have to pull that card... But that card is being pulled more and more....
As long as UK continues to have a structure/system in place that rewards mediocrity in every sport other than basketball then we will continue to get what we got. A basketball school.....

 

[Mike-D]

Anyone with a brain knew passing on Petrino would bite us in this ***. I don't know Mitch Barnhart, know nothing about him. I do know we will never have a good football coach while he's here. Speaking of which, he just signed an extension. Hilarious.

 

[bthaunert]

I couldn't agree more. Granted Lee Todd was a complete wuss as president and brought Mitch in with the order never to get close to getting into trouble after UK laid down for the NCAA over some moderate at worst violations. Barnhart has simply made a lot of bad decisions starting with giving Tubby a big buy out and raise after he had basically quit on the job and was shopping around and ending with giving Stoops another ridiculous contract as a career assistant whose only real success was in recruiting rankings. I just became convinced after watching the team last year that UK has no real commitment to competing in football. Big deal that they upgraded facilities, our facilities were decades out of date and the conference paid for them anyway with the SEC money. I believe that Mitch and the administration is more concerned with appearances and being proper than fielding a decent football program. His mismanagement of baseball and now women's basketball and the complete failure when he hired a sociopath to run our flagship basketball program is more evidence that the administration of the AD is weak.

I agree with some of what you say, but the Tubby extension, at the time, was not a stupid decision. He just went 32-4, undefeated in the SEC, reached the Elite Eight, and won every national coaching award there was. The Stoops contract extension was very dumb, but the Tubby one I don't agree with you on that one.

 

[STUCKNBIG10]

First point is a good one, I'd forgotten that. But second point - it wasn't just Barnhart that refused to interview Petrino. Heard Finebaum the other day say Petrino "tried desperately" to interview with Auburn and they wouldn't even talk to him. Wasn't there a rumor going around about him being blacklisted in the SEC?

I understand, but to me Barnhart made a couple of crucial miscalculations:

1. If he didn't want to hire Petrino b/c of personal disdain for the guys morals (or whatever other reason), then he had to at least be prepared for where Petrino might land. If the landing spot was auburn, then so be it as we only play them once every blue moon. If the landing spot, however, was UL or UT or somewhere "closer to home", then it could be Mitch's worst nightmare and that is what is playing out before our eyes.

2. The $12MM buyout (actually $18MM with assistants thrown in) before you even reach bowl eligibility.

These two items should be Mitch's undoing.

 

[STUCKNBIG10]

Pretty sure one of the former players spoke about Barnhart trying to make the players into good young men...the player went on to say something about football players needing a mean streak, and he felt like that was taken away. That is not word for word, just a generalization.

Pretty sure it was Marcus McClinton that was speaking on this...

Bingo, I do remember that same quote...

 

[law1127]

Stoops kicked Sandy Bell out of football practice, when she hassled some recruits that were there, in his first year. Told Barnhart, he didn't want her around the program and she's not ! She thought she had authority to intervene as she saw fit, according to people witnessing these events.