Barney will be in a pickle after this football season...
- Thread starter Blueathletics
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He's already said. "If we go 2 or 3 MORE years like last year - we will have to take a closer look at the situation."
Go Big Blue!
Do you need for us to join in a circle and sing campfire songs?
That's because Coach Stoops' buyout won't be LOW enough for AT LEAST "2 or 3 more years"!!!!
Mitch will give ANY and EVERY excuse possible to shield HIMSELF from that HORRIBLE buyout!!!
The question will become, will our fans keep coming to games for "2 or 3 more years" if Coach Stoops can't win enough games???
If CMS has another bust season I’m almost willing to bet he walks.
Kind of like Cal.
Did MB fire Cal. No. However, I’m almost positive there were a lot of terms that he didn’t want to abide by should he return.
Tenured people with plush gigs don’t budge not only because of pay, but more so the control. Cal clearly didn’t need the money he opted to take less money and throw his golden parachute retirement plan down the toilet just so he could continue to do things his way.
CMS isn’t going to want to clean house, specifically tell his boys to bounce. He won’t want to bring in new staff and change style. Which will be all but mandated from brass.
The ole “so and so is sniffing around” routine won’t work. Nobody is going to get a bump or extension.
Kind of like Cal.
Did MB fire Cal. No. However, I’m almost positive there were a lot of terms that he didn’t want to abide by should he return.
Tenured people with plush gigs don’t budge not only because of pay, but more so the control. Cal clearly didn’t need the money he opted to take less money and throw his golden parachute retirement plan down the toilet just so he could continue to do things his way.
CMS isn’t going to want to clean house, specifically tell his boys to bounce. He won’t want to bring in new staff and change style. Which will be all but mandated from brass.
The ole “so and so is sniffing around” routine won’t work. Nobody is going to get a bump or extension.
How do you know how many wins we will get? What if it's a better season than you think?
You have a confirmation bias and nothing will change your mind. 9-4 or 4-8, your attitude is unchanged. It's boring.
Use your head. What Barnhart says about his coaches in public is not what he is saying to them privately. It doesn't take a genius. Just a little common sense.
And you REFUSE to face the FACTS. I am a high K-Fund season ticket holder and have been one for over 35 years!!! I support this program through good times and hard times!! So I speak from a place of REALISM.
I was ELATED 5 years ago when Mark Stoops Program was rolling by recruiting players that he could mold into SEC contenders through hard work AND discipline. Then, for some odd reason, he decided to let certain players SLIDE. I guess he was afraid of NIL and the transfer portal, but that was a HORRIBLE mistake.
So now we have a program that is fighting to get back to where it was with a coach that LOST his MOJO.
He is facing the HARDEST schedule I can remember in my 45 years of following UK Football. Mitch gave Coach Stoops a contract that tied the 2 together for these next few seasons and YOU know it!!!
I am hoping that Coach Stoops can turn it around, but I am skeptical. Would be THRILLED if he proved me wrong and got to 9-4 again!!! But I highly doubt it will be next season.
Actually, Calipari is alleged to have breached his contract, and was toast after he did so. As long as Stoops doesn't breach his contract, he's in no obligation to go anywhere without a massive buyout. Calipari absolutely had the ability to operate as he pleased, until he allegedly made a mistake and, then, he no longer had that ability and was tossed, or, at least, he was only allowed back under new terms- which he chose not to accept.
If Stoops doesn't make a similar alleged mistake, or some other mistake, he will either turn things around and stay as long as we wants, or go somewhere else; or he won’t turn things around, and he'll either be fired with a MASSIVE payout or he'll be kept and he'll try and try again to do better than 4-8 or 5-7 or whatever. Even if we suck next year, 4-8 or 5-7 will probably be good enough to keep him, whatwith that buyout, which is quite big.
But, if they go 2-10, with 9 P4 losses and a Toledo loss to boot, I'll bet he's out. 3-9, and it's 50/50, even better if one of the three wins is some massive upset against a Tennessee or Georgia, or if we somehow spank Louisville and I mean spank them like they just spanked us in November. That could save him even at 3-9.
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If Mitch fires him even with a 3-9 record, UK is on the hook for nearly $30 million!!! I just don’t see our big money donors forking up to pay that because I KNOW Mitch alone won’t. Plus you add in having to pay the next coach and ALL the players he wants to bring in and you are talking about A WHOLE LOT of money!!
We don’t have the money Texas A&M had to buyout Jimbo Fisher. Stoops buyout would be the 2nd highest EVER!!!
It's $37.5 million if done after the 2025 season and would have to be paid within 60 days of the notice to terminate.
They're not doing that.
They're not doing that.
You say you were "elated 5 years ago". Now you aren't, and your posts are usually cathartic and negative. Most of your "facts" are actually opinions. Your "realism" is almost always a defacto vote of no confidence for a coach and an AD who saved our football program and established its best performances in modern history. But what have they done for you lately, right? In your own words, you just described yourself as a fair weather fan. People believe what they want to believe, and many don't recognize the difference between a fact and an opinion.
You don't know Mark Stoops' opinion of NIL. All you know about this is that Stoops didn't receive enough help with NIL and it got bad enough in that particular respect that he spoke out. Were you helping?
Then, later, Stoops volunteered that we are in good shape now with NIL.
You are a season ticket holder and K FUND member. So am I. That is a "fact", Ben. So, by your stated "realism" standard, I too speak from a place of realism. Right?
Are you helping? Have you donated to 15 in 2023-25? If, as you say, you want Mark Stoops to succeed, then why do you always speak publicly against him? Why are you always bashing? Is that "realism"? No, it is unfiltered, compulsive complaining.
You may or may not be right about the schedule. Time will tell about that, but I don't ever remember UK's schedule being easy. It's always challenging. We don't whine about the schedule. We are an SEC school. Do you complain about our basketball schedule? We get stronger with the help of the BBN so we can overcome it. The benefit is that the SEC collects $billions in revenues and distributes the money equally among the member schools. That makes ompetitive facilities and payroll possible at every member school.
To be clear again, I agree that Mark Stoops got burned out and struggled with his focus. His divorce involved a lot of personal upheaval that has still not been publicly reported. It affected the program in ways that were unfortunate, but temporary. Stoops thinks he knows what needs to be done. I believe him. How do you know this isn't "realism"? You don't.
My gut tells me that Stoops may struggle to restore certain intangibles, such as toughness and cohesion in the program. IDK if he can do it. But I'm not going to cry and throw my rattle in public. I love my University, and I see reasons for optimism in Stoops' management of the portal. In your mind, that adds up to me refusing to face reality. But it's really just a different way of facing uncertainty. I am hopeful. You can disagree, but don't talk down to me about realism. You have a different point of view.
You are the one “talking down to ME” over my opinion. I would love nothing other than for Coach Stoops to prove me wrong. But Mitch has put this program TOTALLY in his hands and he has allowed HIS program to slide back down to the bottom.
Just because I am skeptical that Mitch and Stoops can turn it BACK around, doesn’t make me any less of a fan than you. And YES, the REALISM is where we are as a program right now!!! I really hope he returns to discipline and hard work that brought HIS program the success EVERY UK fan wants.
But with the SEC adding 2 more traditional powers, that climb back is going to be even HARDER. That is a FACT. So it is on Coach Stoops and Mitch to convince ME and those that are skeptical to believe they can get UK Football back to where we were. I REALLY hope they can, but they are in SHOW ME time now.
You call it complaining, I call it realism. And what’s crazy is I hope YOU are right and I am wrong.
So, Ben, once more. Have you helped? Have you contributed to 15? Have you provided any public gestures of positive encouragement? I ask because you just made some demonstrably false claims about NIL while labeling them "realism" and histrionically insisting that I refuse to "face reality".
You find support here among the other miserable posters. Very sad. Call it whatever you want.
It is Coach Stoops and Mitch’s responsibility to EARN my support, not the other way around. NIL is something that Coach Stoops himself has complained about just in the last year. He has backed off of it since the “Pony Up” comment that was DEVASTATING to him after the results that followed.
So, you believe that fans should just give and speak positively about our program even when it is in an OBVIOUS down period. I DON’T. Without “realism”, a problem will NEVER be fixed.
If we want change, then the only way to get it is to not attend the games. Hate that for the players......but if we want a coaching change then that will be the only way it happens.
It took having only a couple of thousand fans attending the last game of the season watching the Joker coached Cats get blown out by a bad Vandy team to finally force Mitch's hand in firing Joker, even then Mitch didn't want to. Mitch is a great Christian man and I'm appreciative of that but he's a bit soft and sometimes to lax and forgiving when it comes to personnel changes. Plus he's a terrible contract negotiator.
So, if we have a half empty Commonwealth Stadium all season, we might see change.....might.
Still won’t do it. We don’t have $30 million to buy him out even if our record doesn’t improve.
So our best scenario is for Coach Stoops to turn it around because we are stuck with him for at least 2 and maybe 3 more seasons either way.
Thanks Mitch.
That is one way of looking at it, and I won't suggest it is completely wrong. But UK is not run by Stoops and Barnhart. They are employees who serve at the pleasure of the BOT. Actually, Mr. David Melanson, Chair if UK's BOT Committee on Athletics, is ultimately responsible for athletics and for our athletics department. Mr. Melanson controls all of it. Being a major K FUND member, of course you know that.
Loyalty works both ways. That is human "reality". Season tickets are a product. You purchase them because you choose to, and they get you into the stadium. It stands to reason that success of the program is in our University's best interests. It is "reality" that Mitch Barnhart knows a whole lot more about managing an SEC athletics department than you or me. Mitch is the SEC's longest-tenured AD. Three of Mitch's former UK employees are now ADs at other SEC schools. These are among Mitch's honorable recognitions that have brough him widespread respect in the SEC-
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Committee, former Chair
Chair of SEC Athletics Directors Committee since 2017
Chair, NCAA Competition Oversight Committee
Member, NCAA CFP Selection Committee
Named "#1 on Pat Dooley's list of 12 most important people in the SEC"
Top 20 of NACDA Directors Cup national all-sports standings list for the last 6 consecutive years; one of only 10 schools with that standing over the period. Prior to Barnhart, UK's highest standing had been #50.
UK has earned 6 NCAA Championships on Barnhart's watch.
John L. Toner Award for excellence in athletics administration by College Football Hall of Fame
2015 D1 AD of the Year
2019 National AD of the Year
Best GPA and graduation rates for any AD in UK history
Over the last 3 years, 5 UK Wildcats have been named national athlete of the year in their sports.
20 UK athletes and coaches participated in the recent Tokyo Olympics, winning 10 metals including 7 gold.
Member, Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame
Among others
Mitch Barnhart
ukathletics.com
These are "facts" and "reality", Ben. Based on your posting behavior, I'll bet they make you more angry. You can demagogue it. You can talk it down. But you cannot deny actual "reality".
Stoops did not "complain about NIL". He complained about being compelled to expend so much of his time on noncoaching activities that he didn't have enough time to coach his players. There was more going on. Stoops was exhausted, burned out, and trying to cope with the disintegration of his family following his ugly divorce. Barnhart got him more help. And, now, Stoops says it isn't a problem.
You are against being asked to "pony up" because you do not contribute. As an annual 15 contributor, I had no problem with it. As far as I could see, other 15 contributors also want to see wider partipation. UK is a very large, successful school. The BBN is all over the world. There is no "realistic" reason why UK should be at an NIL disadvantage, other than willful nonparticipation and neglect.
Nope. I don't do that myself, and have never advocated it. But, unlike you, I give fair credit where credit is due. And if you really believe your posting behavior here constitutes a "solution" to "fix" UK's athletics department, then you are really losing it man. No major department ever gets all of its problems "fixed" because it is the nature of money and human interactions that new problems always continue to develop. But Barnhart's actual performance record is the complete opposite of your characterization. That is reality, Ben.
How is “hoping Coach Stoops turns it around d”, negative????
But what if he doesn’t?
Do you think Mitch pays the 2nd highest buyout in college football history???
You have yet to answer the main premise of this entire thread.
And as far as Mitch’s accomplishments, they have NOTHING to do with the HORRIBLE buyout clause he gave Coach Stoops.
To be candid, I think Stoops' SEC coaching career is most likely over if he doesn't turn it around this year. What would constitute "turning it around"? That's the implied question. I think Barnhart has answered this. I think Stoops has also tried to answer. It's about the culture around the program. In 2018, UK played downhill and kicked butts.
Bunchy was the poster boy. Our offense moved the chains because our OL was dominant and our players were tough and assignment sound. Many of our linemen were getting drafted. But in 2022-2024, our team got away from that culture and tried to out-finesse teams we had been beating previously with toughness. I might add, by throwing the football all over the field, Stoops gave this board just what it was screaming for at the time. Not deliberately. He wasn't responding to this board. But that was what this board wanted in-mass, because running the football was deemed to be "boring" and "old fashioned" at the time. Back then, the same people were criticizing Stoops, but the nature of the criticism was tailored to fit those times. All aling, the common theme aming the miserable has been that Barnhart and Stoops have to go. I have addressed this before. In 2005, many of the same people demanded that Rich Brooks had to go.
What Barnhart expects (and what Stoops says he expects) is a return to physical, dominant football and solid play at the line of scrimmage. There is no question that our OL was the team's weak link for the last couple of years. That isn't how SEC football is played and won. When our football program gets back to the standard Stoops set here in 2017-18, observant football fans among us will know it when we see it. It will happen, or else it won't. I'm not going to waste my time crying about this.
I believe Stoops has put together an OL roster that can win in the SEC. I don't think Wolf has had a chance yet to develop and coach enough players of his choosing. But that must happen now. Can this coaching staff get it done? They are out of excuses IMHO. I am optimistic, but I am not the kool-aid drinker you have tried to make me out to be. I love my University and want to keep my own mind straight. Life is just too short to behave like an angry, clueless bozo in public.
They would rather not. But Stoops built up the program just as he was hired and payed to do. They won't let it deteriorate back to where Joker left it. And it hasn't gotten there yet because Stoops is in a different universe as a recruiter. The decision belongs to Mr. Melanson, Chair of the UK BOT Committee on Athletics. Barnhart didn't award this contract by himself. It had to be done, ultimately, by the BOT, because the BOT controls the money at UK. Barnhart knows the BOT will make the decision because Barnhart can't buy out this contract out of his department budget. It will take donors. Those people exist, but they would much rather spend their money on better things like facilities and scholarships. As a K FUND member, you already know all of this. That's mainly how I know it. Like me, you have surely talked with Mr. Melanson and other BOT members at K Fund, UKAA, and other executive gatherings.
The title of the thread is "Barney will be in a pickle after this season". Sounds as if it was written by a cartoon character. I have already reviewed Barnhart's extensive and impressive SEC accomishments. Did you read them? You are a K Fund member so you already know Barnhart is in a secure position at UK although he will not allow the football program to slide farther IMHO. I think it's now or never for Stoops, but Barnhart isn't nearly dumb enough to advertise that in public or air the department's dirty laundry.
Have you ever been responsible for a department? When you evaluate an employee's performance, you take the entire pallet. People are hunan. David Melanson knows which decisions were made by Barnhart and which decisions were pushed by the BOT. There is a false narrative, popular on this board, that says nobody wants Stoops. You are a K Fund member, so you ought to know that many schools have sent out feelers to Stoops. Not this year, of course. LOL! But, at the time, the BOT Committee on Athletics tried to get out in front of it. Hindsight is always 20-20. Please, let's not even pretend we know how to do their jobs. We don't.
