The issues have changed. So has the venue.
But Gary Barnett’s reaction to the mushrooming sex scandal at the University of Colorado is strikingly similar to his handling of the gambling scandal that afflicted Northwestern in 1998.
After four Northwestern football players were accused of having lied to a federal grand jury about betting on NU football games, Barnett was anything but apologetic. He all but used a crowbar to distance himself from the bad seeds.
“It doesn’t indict our program,” he said at the time. “The stain is on the individuals, not us.”
While the stain might be on the individuals at Colorado, Barnett is the one who could take the fall.
A day after being suspended with pay, a move many interpret as a precursor to dismissal, the 57-year-old coach received public support from many former Colorado football players at a news conference in Boulder.
Former running back Scott Nemeth called Barnett “an honest and moral man.” Said former quarterback Charles Johnson: “We believe he is doing the right things. A balanced story is not being told.”
But even as Barnett’s supporters spoke up, the Colorado program was dealt another harsh blow.
Boulder police said they are investigating another allegation of sexual assault involving a Colorado football player, the sixth to surface since the scandal broke three weeks ago amid talk of sex-fueled recruiting parties that featured alcohol and strippers.
Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said the latest incident allegedly occurred Aug. 23, 2002, and described it as “a particularly brutal case.” The woman told police she met two men at a bar, but had trouble remembering what happened after leaving for her apartment. She told police “she may have been drugged.”
Authorities eventually focused on two football players. DNA tests ruled out one as a suspect, while tests on the second player’s sample haven’t been completed, he said.
Barnett was put on paid leave late Wednesday after university president Elizabeth Hoffman said she was dismayed by accusations that Barnett tried to dissuade an alleged rape victim from going to police in 2001. Hoffman also was irked by Barnett’s “unacceptable, inappropriate and insensitive” comments about Katie Hnida.
“Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. OK?” Barnett said. “There’s no other way to say it.”
He apologized, but the damage was done.
With Barnett expected to lose his job, several of his former Colorado players gathered Thursday to show their support.
Northwestern assistant football coach Pat Fitzgerald, a former All-America linebacker, also defended his former coach in a statement released by Northwestern. “I find it hard to believe in any shape or form he would condone or harbor an environment that these allegations proclaim,” he said.
“He’s a good man and I don’t think what’s happening to him is fair,” said Steve Schnur, the quarterback on the Wildcats’ 1996 Rose Bowl team. “The big things he preached were accountability and integrity.”
On the day the charges against his Wildcats program were announced in 1994, Barnett said it was nearly impossible to keep track of his players on an everyday basis. “You can attempt to educate them … but you can’t control them,” Barnett said. “You’re only with them four hours a day.”
