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Thank you Mitch Barnhart!!!

zerubbable said:
Give it a rest. Barnhart is a hall of fame AD
UK sports all across the board has never been better under his tutelage
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But the primary sport here is basketball and man has Kentucky suffered under his watch the tub years Billy and the insane lifetime contract he gave calipari that got us 7 years of what we term the shitshow that saying I do like the hire he did with THE POPE chance to redeem himself before he checks out
 
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bbncal02 said:
Mitch has certainly saved his own skin in the past couple of months.

Baseball has done its job for the most part (want to
See more for sure).

Stoops is the next coach who needs to step it up.
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It was a gangster move the way he wolf in sheep's clothing style allowed Cow to break his contract by talking to other schools without notifying UK and acted like hey, we don't know and it's no problem. Then, he foresees Cows attempt at triangulation and extortion based on his BLOWN OUT ego and miscalculated self value, and responds to CCCs demands with oh hey btw, we know about you breaking the contract so how about you just leave instead and you get no buyout from us either.
Straight out of The art of war playbook, when strong, appear weak, to lull your enemy into an unwise mistake based on ego miscalculation. Well that kind of combines the second, which is never stop your enemy in the middle of them making a mistake.
That book is gold I tell ya. Outstanding job Mitch, you fooled us all, there's a reason he got appointed to that position. Love it.
 
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Barnhardt is not going anywhere. He'll retire from this job. Our overall sports program has improved vastly under his leadership.
 
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bbncal02 said:
He’s done ok. He’s certainly had some clunkier games he had no business having. We pay him well. He needs to kick it up a notch.
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He is paid well. But if money resulted in c'ships, the Yankees and Dodgers would be in the WS almost every year.
How do you propose Stoops kick it up a notch?
 
cat_in_the_hat said:
Every AD makes bad hires. Everyone who hires people for a living makes bad hires. It's the nature of the beast. And lets not forget that many people on this board were excited about Joker taking over for Brooks. I actually read comments that said Brooks has peaked, it's time to see what Joker can do. I wasn't one of those but don't act like most people thought Joker was a bad hire. Many were also excite by the BCG hire and thought he was the next up and coming coach. Shit happens when you hire people. No one is going to avoid making mistakes. Mitch is the best AD we have had and arguable one the best in country. If you look at how much out athletic program has improved since he took over, it's hard to argue otherwise. I hear the argument that SEC money has helped and that's true. But our athletic programs have improved probably more anyone else in the SEC and possible the country. If it's all about money, then everyone else should have improved as much as we did.
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You absolutely nailed it
 
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cat_in_the_hat said:
Every AD makes bad hires. Everyone who hires people for a living makes bad hires. It's the nature of the beast. And lets not forget that many people on this board were excited about Joker taking over for Brooks. I actually read comments that said Brooks has peaked, it's time to see what Joker can do. I wasn't one of those but don't act like most people thought Joker was a bad hire. Many were also excite by the BCG hire and thought he was the next up and coming coach. Shit happens when you hire people. No one is going to avoid making mistakes. Mitch is the best AD we have had and arguable one the best in country. If you look at how much out athletic program has improved since he took over, it's hard to argue otherwise. I hear the argument that SEC money has helped and that's true. But our athletic programs have improved probably more anyone else in the SEC and possible the country. If it's all about money, then everyone else should have improved as much as we did.
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you nailed it
some on here must be Tom Jurich fans
thankfully MB has not played a shell game with our money like TJ did
 
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I’ll be shocked if Mitch is still employed in 6 months. And that may not even be the choice of the school
 
jeffky said:
Add joker and Billy g too
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Joker saved Brooks' job with his offense in 2006 and 2007. Andre Woodson's senior year (2007) was the most well rounded offense UK has ever had, and Joker was the OC. Joker deserved a shot at head coach. It was obvious after three years it wasn't going to work out, and Mitch made a change.

Gillispie had just beaten Pitino and UofL in the Sweet Sixteen, and Arkansas was set to hire him before we jumped in. You could criticize Mitch for not doing enough background on Gillispie, but Gillispie was a hot coach at the time. It became obvious quickly that it wasn't a good fit and Mitch made a change after 2 years.

Matthew Mitchell retired suddenly and Elzy was on the staff and they needed a coach. Had they done a full search, she probably wouldn't have been hired. But her resume was good, played and coached under Pat Summitt before coming to UK, Kentucky native.

Mens Tennis was an undefeated SEC Champion this year, and lost to eventual national champion TCU in the final 8 in Stillwater. Women's volleyball is a recent National Champion. UK women will be well represented in the Olympics in Paris in track. The overall athletics department has never accomplished as much under any AD prior to Barnhart. But I do think Barnhart will "retire" over the swimming scandal.
 
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Elliott Tim said:
He is paid well. But if money resulted in c'ships, the Yankees and Dodgers would be in the WS almost every year.
How do you propose Stoops kick it up a notch?
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Um, easy. Beat the damn teams your supposed to beat and not get boat raced by others.

We've lost to freaking South Carolina and Vandy in the past couple of seasons man. That's not good....even by old UK football standards.

I didn't say he had to win it all. But losing games we shouldn't have (USC, Vandy, that Ole Miss game Levis's last season, etc) and struggling with a couple of the cupcakes.....just can't keep happening for nearly 9M a year. Another coach was doing similar stuff and you see where it got him.
 
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bbncal02 said:
Um, easy. Beat the damn teams your supposed to beat and not get boat raced by others.

We've lost to freaking South Carolina and Vandy in the past couple of seasons man. That's not good....even by old UK football standards.

I didn't say he had to win it all. But losing games we shouldn't have (USC, Vandy, that Ole Miss game Levis's last season, etc) and struggling with a couple of the cupcakes.....just can't keep happening for nearly 9M a year. Another coach was doing similar stuff and you see where it got him.
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How do purpose getting talent the level of Alabama and Georgia to come here?
His salary can't make that happen.
 
Elliott Tim said:
How do purpose getting talent the level of Alabama and Georgia to come here?
His salary can't make that happen.
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Where did I say that? You think we need Bama and UGA talent to beat Vandy or South Carolina? Guess BBN didn't pony up enough huh?

Nobody is saying we should be beating Bama and UGA consistently. That is crazy. But it's not crazy to ask us to be competitive with say UF. Or South Carolina. Or Ole Miss.

All that aside, he's had some questionable coaching decisions ingame, and has had some iffy staff choices.

Again, not saying that he should be Kirby Smart, but with what he's making he shouldn't be losing to effing Vandy. Ever.
 
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I’m more annoyed Mitch continues to give out ridiculous contracts and locks the school into high buyouts with little wiggle room for the school. He dodged a bullet with Cal leaving, but Stoops still has about $50mil left on his contract and IF pope doesn’t work out he will be expensive to fire especially if he makes a couple of Sweet 16’s.

It’s literally like he doesn’t negotiate! How Stoops and Pope are top 10 paid coaches is baffling. Stoops should be at $5-7mil and Pope around $3mil then bump it up with winning incentives.
 
I feel compelled to post the following every time Mitch bashing begins.

Mitch Barnhart since 2002:.

12 post-season bowl appearances in football, (7-5 record)
1 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship
4 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four appearances
8 SEC Men's Basketball Champions
8 SEC Men's Tournament Basketball Championships
1 NCAA Volleyball Championship
1 SEC Women's Basketball Champions (2011-2012)
1 SEC Women's Tournament Basketball Champion (Thanks Kyra)
2 SEC East Baseball Champions
1 NCAA Men's Baseball College World Series
1 SEC Softball Tournament Runners-up
1 NCAA Women's Softball College World Series
2 SEC Men's Tennis Championships
1 SEC Men's Tennis Tournament Championship
2 SEC Men's Tennis Runners-up
1 SEC Women's Tennis Championships
2 SEC Women's Tennis Runners-up
1 SEC Women's Soccer Runners-up
1 SEC Women's Soccer Tournament Championship
7 SEC Women's Volleyball Championships
1 SEC Men's Golf Championship
3 NCAA Team Rifle Championships
10 Men's NCAA Soccer Tournament appearances.
2003 and 2004 MAC Men's Soccer Regular Season Champion
2015 and 2018 CUSA Men's Soccer Regular Season Champion
2018 and 2021 CUSA Men's Soccer Tournament Champion
2022 Men's Sun Belt Regular Season and Tournament soccer Champions

In other news, Cliff Hagan, either as a player or athletic director, was involved in 4 of 6 major NCAA major rules infractions committed by UK.

1953

1976

1988

1989
 
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flacat22 said:
Pathetic POS
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Which psycho
FtWorthCat said:
Joker saved Brooks' job with his offense in 2006 and 2007. Andre Woodson's senior year (2007) was the most well rounded offense UK has ever had, and Joker was the OC. Joker deserved a shot at head coach. It was obvious after three years it wasn't going to work out, and Mitch made a change.

Gillispie had just beaten Pitino and UofL in the Sweet Sixteen, and Arkansas was set to hire him before we jumped in. You could criticize Mitch for not doing enough background on Gillispie, but Gillispie was a hot coach at the time. It became obvious quickly that it wasn't a good fit and Mitch made a change after 2 years.

Matthew Mitchell retired suddenly and Elzy was on the staff and they needed a coach. Had they done a full search, she probably wouldn't have been hired. But her resume was good, played and coached under Pat Summitt before coming to UK, Kentucky native.

Mens Tennis was an undefeated SEC Champion this year, and lost to eventual national champion TCU in the final 8 in Stillwater. Women's volleyball is a recent National Champion. UK women will be well represented in the Olympics in Paris in track. The overall athletics department has never accomplished as much under any AD prior to Barnhart. But I do think Barnhart will "retire" over the swimming scandal.
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Joker didn't save anything for Coach Brooks, but the remaining paragraphs I agree with. That entire 2006 & 2007 team was special and matured together at the right time. They won games in spite of the offense Joker ran. Just an incredible group of young men and a great head coach.

I can definitely see the rest of the country looking forward to UK losing Barnhart. They're tired of hearing about UK and hope we drop off once he is gone. I don't know if the scandal is real or not. No idea as I've not read or seen much besides some accusations so far.

We'll see soon enough
 
bthaunert said:
I think anytime an AD is at a school for 23 years, they are going to make a bad hire or 2. That’s just inevitable. I always use Jeremy Foley at UF as the example. Often referred to as the best AD on SEC history. He was the AD at UF from 1992 - 2016. That means he hired Zook, Strong, Muschamp and McElwain.

The question is, how quickly do you move on from those bad hires and is the next one a good one. Luckily, UK fired Joker and BCG relatively quick and hired Cal and Stoops.

Mitch’s bigger issues are contracts, PR with the fans and his conservative approach to the changing landscape of college athletics.

As for those that talk about his advantage of having all of this new revenue…every other school does too. It’s not like UK is the only school that got this major bump in revenue. UK didn’t all of a sudden get this advantage no other school got.

Mitch has done a solid job at UK. He’s not the most likeable guy in the public eye, but I would give him a B+ for his time at UK.
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Solid post...well done.
 
Jakerz said:
I’ll be shocked if Mitch is still employed in 6 months. And that may not even be the choice of the school
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100%…..They might very well have to clean house to put all this stuff with the swim coach in the past.
 
AustinTXCat said:
I feel compelled to post the following every time Mitch bashing begins.

Mitch Barnhart since 2002:.

12 post-season bowl appearances in football, (7-5 record)
1 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship
4 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four appearances
8 SEC Men's Basketball Champions
8 SEC Men's Tournament Basketball Championships
1 NCAA Volleyball Championship
1 SEC Women's Basketball Champions (2011-2012)
1 SEC Women's Tournament Basketball Champion (Thanks Kyra)
2 SEC East Baseball Champions
1 NCAA College World Series Baseball
1 SEC Softball Tournament Runners-up
2 SEC Men's Tennis Championships
1 SEC Men's Tennis Tournament Championship
2 SEC Men's Tennis Runners-up
1 SEC Women's Tennis Championships
2 SEC Women's Tennis Runners-up
1 SEC Women's Soccer Runners-up
1 SEC Women's Soccer Tournament Championship
7 SEC Women's Volleyball Championships
1 SEC Men's Golf Championship
3 NCAA Team Rifle Championships
10 Men's NCAA Soccer Tournament appearances.
2003 and 2004 MAC Men's Soccer Regular Season Champion
2015 and 2018 CUSA Men's Soccer Regular Season Champion
2018 and 2021 CUSA Men's Soccer Tournament Champion
2022 Men's Sun Belt Regular Season and Tournament soccer Champions

In other news, Cliff Hagan, either as a player or athletic director, was involved in 4 of 6 major NCAA major rules infractions committed by UK.

1953

1976

1988

1989
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Didn't the women's softball team make the college world series about 10 years ago?
 
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UKWildcats1987 said:
So no issue with the Joker, bcg and elzie hires?

No isue with lifetime contract?
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At the time he hired Joker, the coach in waiting was popular and Coach Brooks pushed for it and endorsed it. Even though it turned out bad, the logic behind it was solid (at the time).
The lifetime contract was really a 10 year contract and we would have most likely lost Cal to UCLA. Cal was still seen as a coach we didn't want to part with at that time. Most fans were onboard. Furthermore, he was wise enough to use Cal's ego to get him to leave and it did not hold us hostage or cost us the buyout. If he had to pay the buyout I would have viewed this differently.
Whether people like to admit or not UK is much more respected across the board athletically and our facilities have made a dramatic improvement. This includes Rupp, Kroger Field, Memorial, KY Proud Park, and many more. When AD rankings have been discussed in the past Mitch always is rated as top notch.
 
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Killswitch24 said:
Eh, selling. Mitch has done a lot of damage to our crown jewel although, the way he appeared to out maneuver Calipari was nice. At one time I gave him a 3 of 10 job performance, I’d say he’s moved into the 5 range (4.7). He’s made a ton of hires that extend well beyond bad. We don’t know about Pope yet, horrendous hires like Gillispie, hires that made no sense and everyone saw disaster coming like Joker. Let’s not even get into his contracts which appear to be some of the worst in the history of sports outside of some MLB deals. Even when we hired Calipari he wanted no part in that. Mitch is not concerned with winning at the highest levels where it counts. He’s more into the reputation of the athletic department.

I’ve always said because of this fact he’s more suited for a smaller conference program like Western than an SEC program like UK. Possibly Vandy, but not a university that has the top program in a sport while in the best conference.

But what I don’t think many comprehend (and won’t until they see future AD’s) is revenue streams have created a lot of what you’re seeing. He’s been the AD at Kentucky since 01…uh..that’s nearly the 90’s. Nobody thinks we should have outpaced at least Vandy for a NY6 bowl? First college World Series just happened. Some of the worst hires in our programs’ histories on his watch. All with modern SEC revenue steams and the nations top basketball program? This is it? And he didn’t want Calipari, I mean where would he have had us by now?

So I just can’t get on board with it. I have been a big UK baseball fan my entire life, went to my first game in the early 90’s vs. Indiana. I’m not really trying to complain. If you like Barnhart knock yourself out. I’m not going to get into a back and forth, I think what I posted and his resume stands for itself. If you’re in love with it then nothing has ever convinced you otherwise and I won’t be able to now.
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Yeah his horrible hires like extending Elzy just ruin a lot of the good he’s done across most sports.
 
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