Topic: Gary Barnett

Gary Barnett (born May 23, 1946 in Lakeland, Florida) is a former college football head coach. He was the head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats from 1992 to 1999. He left Northwestern for the Colorado Buffaloes, where he was head coach from 1999 to 2005, though he was suspended briefly in the 2004 offseason due to events stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct by several members of the football team.

Barnett went to high school at Parkway central in Chesterfield, Missouri. Barnett graduated from the University of Missouri in 1969 with a bachelors degree in social studies. He continued on to get his masters degree in 1971 in education. Barnett played wide receiver for Missouri from 1966–1969. He lettered his senior year under coach Dan Devine.

Barnett started his coaching career at the University of Missouri as a graduate assistant from 1969–1971 under coach Al Onofrio. After he graduated, he was a successful high school coach at Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado for eleven years (9 as head coach). His teams won 6 conference titles and reached the state semi-finals twice (1980 and 1981). Barnett then began his head coaching at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. After two seasons as head coach, he left on February 20, 1984 to become an assistant coach at Colorado under head coach Bill McCartney. He was the running backs coach for the first season, but switched to quarterbacks and fullbacks coach for the next 7 seasons. On December 3, 1990, he was promoted to Offensive Coordinator. His first game as OC was against Notre Dame in the 1991 Orange Bowl which Colorado won to earn their first (and only) NCAA Division I-A national football championship.