Northwestern coach Barnett denies rumors about Colorado job

EVANSTON (U-WIRE) - A day after the Colorado head coaching position opened, Northwestern football coach and former Buffaloes assistant Gary Barnett reacted quickly to speculation he might snap up the one job that could make him go back on his word to stay at Northwestern.

Last time this happened, Barnett wasn't there with a statement - no 4:51 p.m., day-of fax to shove under the media's nose and kill the buzz that he was off to better money and plum opportunity at Notre Dame or UCLA or Texas or ...

"I have neither been contacted by anyone at Colorado nor has anything occurred that would alter my December 1997 statement that I intend to fulfill my contract at Northwestern," Barnett said in the statement.

According to rumors, senior wide receiver D'wayne Bates isn't the only one leaving Northwestern. It was speculated that Coach Gary Barnett would leave Evanston for the vacated Colorado coaching position.

Barnett, however, did not mention the Washington position, which was filled Saturday by erstwhile Colorado coach Rick Neuheisel.

ESPN.com reported Sunday that Barnett, who stomached a winless Big Ten season this year, had indeed interviewed for the Huskies job and was a top candidate. But when Washington gave the nod and a $7 million contract to Neuheisel, the rumors siphoned off to the new vacancy, many saying it's the last good job Barnett will have a shot at. That it was Colorado simply added to the hearsay.

Barnett spent eight years there under former Buffaloes coach Bill McCartney. He took over as offensive coordinator in the 1991 Orange Bowl, winning a share of the national championship. After an 8-2-1 season the next year, Barnett took the Northwestern job. In 1997, he inked a 12-year contract worth a reported $500,000 a year - with, it has been rumored, an out-clause if the Missouri (where he was a wide receiver in the 1960s) or Colorado head-coaching positions became available.

Additionally, from 1971 to 1981, Barnett served as an assistant and head coach at Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs, Colo. In 1982, he took the head job at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., and stayed there two seasons.

"My entire professional life prior to Northwestern was in the state of Colorado," Barnett said in the statement. "It is only natural everyone would assume that I would be eager to return."

According to the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera, Barnett told Colorado officials he would weigh any offers, but it would "have to be done in a hurry."

For the sake of recruiting, both sides are forced to hustle to a decision. The date for prospects to sign national letters of intent is Feb. 3.

Neither Barnett nor Northwestern athletic director Rick Taylor could be reached for comment Sunday night.

And Colorado's take on the rumors?

"That's all they are," said David Plati, director of sports information at Colorado. "We have a coaching opening and we're in the process of doing the search now. I can't say if Gary is (a candidate) or isn't one. And I don't know."

Adam Reed may have the best perspective of anyone.

A former Colorado center who graduated this December, Reed transferred from NORTHWESTERN in 1995 -- before the Wildcats' Rose Bowl season. He would not say why he transferred, but he did allow this much: It had nothing to do with Barnett.

"He was one of the reasons it was hard for me to leave," Reed said. "I respected him. I liked him when I was up there. "He's definitely a candidate, a good candidate. He's been in the works for a while. He's got what it takes, obviously, and would be good for this program. He's definitely been mentioned in every paper. In terms of most mentions, he'd be the guy."

Barnett was almost the guy for Texas in December 1997. He flirted with the Longhorns, but in the end, decided against leaving. But Texas officials insist they dropped him from contention.

"My gut feeling was that it wasn't the right thing to do," Barnett said last year. "Wednesday morning, I got up and said, 'I can't do this.' I'm here and I will be here for the next 10 years of my contract. There are enough people who need to hear that and I'm willing to say that."

Then last November, Barnett's name popped up again when the Oklahoma job became vacant. He said he was never contacted by the Sooners. But here came ABC's Dean Blevins on national TV, reporting from the sidelines during Nebraska's contest against ... Colorado, saying Barnett was, in fact, a candidate -- "They will deny it, but that's a fact."

Barnett was broadsided by media criticism, which intensified in December after federal prosecutors announced the indictments of four former Northwestern football players in the gambling scandal.

They said the Oklahoma job was his last opportunity to crawl out of the mess at Northwestern, so take it, Coach.

Now they're saying it again.

MARGARET MYERS/Daily

01-12-99