He also won three national football titles with spurrier Ana urban Meyer. Add in another two titles in basketball with Billy Donovan So sure those hires were not good but he hit a ton more home runs then Mitch has ever sniffed
Mitch Barnhart's contract extended through 2028
- Thread starter TyCatPrice14
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It’s an L for the major sports imo especially w a basketball hire on the horizon and in this new era of C.R.E.A.M open arms race in college sports. He doesn’t have a great track record of major hires. Stoops saved him by petitioning for the football job. And Cal was largely courted by the boosters after the Billy G failure. Add that to him dragging his feet with adjusting to the new era…. Idk if I personally trust him to lead us in the next generation of semi pro college athletics.
Now, the flip side of that is that he’s been the most successful AD in our history from a relatively meaningless Directors cup standpoint w all the Olympic sports and Title 9 non revenue sports. So probably a W from that standpoint.
Just depends on the lenses you view it through. My personal view is that the big 2 matter exponentially more than anything else and then baseball, WBB, Volleyball, Softball in the next tier….. and Cheer should always be a top 2 program here and that has been mishandled in the last few years as well
Spurrier wasn’t his hire. But, yes, he gets credit for Meyer ahd Donovan. He also gets credit for the 3 coaches I listed and Mike White. All below average to terrible coaches.
Mitch is the best A.D. UK has ever had.
The biggest negative now is of course Cal's contract. I don't really have an opinion on WBB, but every other sport has had fantastic success.
And those talking about Stoops down season last year ... it was only because Will was hurt. Stoops is worth every penny UK pays him, and the extension was good (the announcement was just really poorly timed).
The biggest negative now is of course Cal's contract. I don't really have an opinion on WBB, but every other sport has had fantastic success.
And those talking about Stoops down season last year ... it was only because Will was hurt. Stoops is worth every penny UK pays him, and the extension was good (the announcement was just really poorly timed).
Didn’t he hire BCG and Joker? You’d have to add those to the negatives.
Barnhardt is a terrible AD. Any success besides sports no one cares about is in spite of him
It because of him.
It because of him.
I can safely say Barnhardt hasn’t done a damn thing for UK athletics!
That’s so false I can’t even take it. The biggest negative was hiring a first time football coach and throwing him to the wolves without any support. He damn near killed the most important program we have. Add BCG, and a slew of terrible contracts. Then, it takes a fan uprising at every turn to get things that are needed (stadium and Arena upgrades, alcohol, NIL and many more.) He has no relationship with his most expensive and important asset (Cal) and no relationship with the fan base (see comments above and on Facebook about this contract if you don’t believe me.) The guy is a disaster and has never gotten in front of a situation since he’s been here. His only saving grace is that he has a loud fan base who makes it impossible for him to stick with his original horrible decisions and they get fixed after every other program gets two years ahead.
Stoops not worth even close to $9 mil a year- think when he signed it he was in top 10 of paid college football coaches- no idea how that contract was approved
Nothing wrong with Cal's contract. it's the rest of them he blew. Starting with Tubby.
You're worth what you get paid. He's earned it. UK can afford it. Athletics brought in $160 Million last year. We want to keep him, and it shows UK is willing to pay top money for a coach, which attracts better coaches when hiring a new one.
You’ve got to be a troll. No way you’re serious.
The Cal pumpers are also Barnhart supporters. Do y’all need anymore proof these people are trolls and need to be banned off here ?! Hello mods, helloooo?!?!
People on a Kentucky messageboard who support the Kentucky coach and Kentucky athletics director are trolls and should be banned? It’s almost like they’re Kentucky fans.
Good luck with your cancel culture.
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Oh, name calling when you have nothing.
I am serious. What do you find wrong with Cal’s contract?
One of the few things Barney got right.
I would think that’s not true. I guess I would be called a Cal pumper by the likes of you?
And I can’t stand Barney and have thought he should be fired for 20 years now.
But even if you are right about everyone else, why would you want differing opinions banned?
Can you not defend your opinion?
Lucky for Mitch, the people that report to him in the athletic dept are pretty good.
Mitch himself? Pretty good at being the empty suit in charge. Except when he actually has to lead or make a decision. Then we see crap like the Stoops-Cal war of words last year. For what he gets paid, I expected more. I'll give him a pass on mistakes, everyone makes them. But not on lack of required skill sets. He couldn't manage a shift in a fast food restaurant. For example, WANTING to hire Billy Clyde was a mistake. NOT doing the due diligence, using your network, or listening to what you're told and hiring him despite all that .... incompetence. Not a mistake.
I know a few people that work at UK. I'm not the only one that thinks this.
Mitch himself? Pretty good at being the empty suit in charge. Except when he actually has to lead or make a decision. Then we see crap like the Stoops-Cal war of words last year. For what he gets paid, I expected more. I'll give him a pass on mistakes, everyone makes them. But not on lack of required skill sets. He couldn't manage a shift in a fast food restaurant. For example, WANTING to hire Billy Clyde was a mistake. NOT doing the due diligence, using your network, or listening to what you're told and hiring him despite all that .... incompetence. Not a mistake.
I know a few people that work at UK. I'm not the only one that thinks this.
After over a decade of Mark Stoops at the helm WHAT makes you believe he will advance us any further than he already has. He is an average game coach.I would say he os an above average defensive coach but his offenses have been horrible for the most part. When faced with better SEC coaches he lɔoses consistantly. His recruiting while better than Phillips is average at BEST. OUR UPCOMING CLASS is currently ranked 12th in SEC, even Vandy is ranked higher. Poeple say we cant match UGA and Alabama in recruiting but its not just them that are beating us there, its virtually the whole conference EVERY year. People say we cant do any better,how do you know? If we want to stay middle of the pack forever he is your guy, why not take a risk and look for someone who can take is to the next level.
All we have to lose is our mediocrity
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All we have to lose is our mediocrity
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Are you judging football recruiting classes in August? Seriously? Alabama recruiting class is 6th in the SEC. I guess they’re gonna be a middle of the pack program. People with anti UK agendas always tell on themselves.
For year stoops was banking raises and extensions at 7 wins on a little league schedule, that has finally been corrected but that’s still on Mitch. It was an all time bad contract, now it’s just bad.
I’m not the one degrading our recruiting class in August. Either you’re new to this or you’re a complete fraud. You have zero credibility either way.
BTW, our football program is in 10x better shape now than when you started going.
I agree- no way is Stoops worth the $9 mil a year, for an average coach whose record is not good- we go to bowl games but so does 80+ other teams- maybe he is the best KY can get but don't pay him like a top 10 college football coach
His salary puts him right in the middle of the SEC. Pretty much on par with where he’s had the program the past 7 seasons.
He’s had the 2 best seasons in UK history since the 50’s (not counting the cheating season of 1977)….both in the past 5 years.
Add the to the fact UK probably has to slightly overpay to keep a good coach, and his salary is pretty close to right on spot.
Yeah, $10 million per year don't get you many wins and no chance for a championship.
MB is the only AD in the SEC that gives out raises and contract extensions to the head coach for just recruiting well. And then he goes out and gives Caliprairie his early retirement package... SMH.
Yeah, people act as if other AD’s make all great hires. Mitch has his issues, but are we not in the same conference as Texas A&M and the ridiculous contract that Jimbo Fisher got in 2021 which has a $77 million buyout. He’s 13-11/6-10 since that 10 year deal.
Bjork was the AD at Ole Miss from 2012-2019 and been at TAMU since 2019. He hired Hugh Freeze (cheated/probation) and Matt Luke (15-21 record) at Ole Miss then moved to TAMU and gave Jimbo that terrible contract.
I’m sure there are other examples too, but that’s one that I thought of right off the bat.
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