Barnett steps down as Colorado head coach

He accepted a $3 million settlement from the university.
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Gary Barnett reluctantly stepped down as football coach of Colorado on Thursday, accepting a $3 million settlement and ending a tenure that was riddled by off-the-field problems but ultimately done in by recent bad results on the field.
Barnett said the decision was made by athletic director Mike Bohn.
"In the last 24 hours, Mike has made a decision to change the football coach at the University of Colorado," he said. "I respect that decision, I didn't like that decision -- I didn't resign my position -- but I wholeheartedly accept ... the decision."
Choking up and pausing, Barnett thanked his players and fellow coaches.
Disappointed in decision
He conceded he was disappointed in the school's decision and that as little as three weeks ago he was looking forward to a contract extension. Colorado, however, lost three straight games by a combined score of 130-22.
"It's pretty simple. We lost," he said. "I think our team has been overly concerned about a contract extension ... We ran out of juice, the well went dry."
The Buffs (7-5) will face Clemson in the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 27. said Barnett, 49-38 over seven seasons, will not coach the team in that game.
Thus marked a fairly rapid -- though not all that stunning -- reversal for Colorado, which appeared ready to offer Barnett a contract extension as recently as a month ago.
The coach said he pretty much thought the extension was a done deal when the Buffs began the season 7-2 and appeared to be rolling toward their fourth Big 12 North title in five years.
Many figured it was only a matter of a state audit of Barnett's football camps, due out next Monday, that was holding things up.
Poor finish
Things changed, though, as Colorado ended up winning the division title, but backed into it without winning another game. After a humiliating 70-3 loss to Texas in the Big 12 title game last Saturday, Barnett conceded he didn't know why his team had been unable to recover from a loss to Iowa State, three weeks earlier, that started the losing streak and said "We all know this is a pretty fragile existence."
Nobody was more in touch with that than Barnett, an assistant at CU for Bill McCartney during the heyday of the 1990s, who went onto Northwestern and turned that lagging program around.
He was brought to Colorado, ironically, to help spruce up the image of a program that had earned something of a renegade status under Rick Neuheisel.
Recruiting scandal
At first, Barnett was successful. By the end, though, he found himself in the center of a sordid recruiting scandal, which resulted in an investigation that concluded drugs, alcohol and sex were used to entice recruits to the Boulder campus, though none of practices were sanctioned by university officials.
No charges were filed, but Barnett got into further trouble when he used derogatory terms in talking about kicker Katie Hnida, who came out with allegations that she was raped by a teammate in 2000. Barnett was suspended by the school in the spring of 2004 and had restrictions placed on his recruiting, which have since been eased.
When Barnett returned from his suspension, he still had his job, but the president, chancellor and athletic director were all soon gone.
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