do not let this man near your football program.

My daily skimming through Ben Maller brought up this little tidbit from the St. Paul Pioneer Press: "Former Northwestern and Colorado football coach Gary Barnett is very interested in the [Minnesota] Gophers' vacancy."

Let us remember this choice passage, as One More Dying Quail has helpfully resurrected it in an otherwise great post on how questionable the state of Colorado has been for athletics in all forms:

"Summer 2000: Colorado University kicker Katie Hnida is allegedly raped by a teammate on the school’s football team. Coach Gary Barnett later dismisses this and other allegations of sexual misconduct toward Hnida by saying, “It’s obvious Katie was not very good…she was awful. Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible, OK? There’s no other way to say it.” Barnett also saw Colorado deal with a recruiting scandal before losing his job in 2005."

Let us also reflect on this bit of admitted schadenfreude by Barnett kept for posterity by the Wizard of Odds, the fall after he was fired two years too late (of course, only getting fired because he got shellacked by a Vince-Young led Texas):

"Former Colorado coach Gary Barnett told the Colorado Springs Gazette said he has mixed feelings over the Buffaloes' stumbling start under new coach Dan Hawkins. 'I hurt for the kids, he said. 'Those are my guys. I know the talent that we have there, the maturity and the leadership, and I want those guys to get everything they deserve, and I want them to play in the [Big 12] Championship Game again. Then, on the other side, I got taken out of that situation. I got removed from it and someone else made that decision. Part of me felt a little vindication because of it.'"

My dad and I have both suffered through the abject stupidity, aloofness, and classless behavior of Barnett over the years (Pop is a Northwestern alum; I spent ten years watching CU football and have several high school friends who played on various teams), and recently, we came to a conclusion: any athletic director who offers this man a head coaching job ought to be tarred, feathered, maimed, shot, and then run out of town if s/he somehow managed to survive all of that.

No one at CU thought it was possible to do MORE damage to the program after Rick Neuheisel left for Washington, but Barnett exceeded all expectations.