Boulder – The official jeweler of the Colorado football team should know the ring size of coach Gary Barnett by heart.
There almost certainly is more bling in his future.
But the loudest noise made by CU’s 41-12 rout of Missouri had an even nicer ring to it.
Ka-ching! At the end of a taxing 18 months on the job, Barnett will be rewarded by the cash register.
Beating the Tigers had to be worth at least $5 million to Barnett. Not bad for one Saturday of work.
The only reasonable choice for CU is to give Barnett a contract extension. He has earned it.
After this football season is history, the easiest decision of athletic director Mike Bohn’s young administration will be to show Barnett the money.
We’re talking big bucks. The deal that currently binds Barnett to the Buffs expires after next season. At a minimum, he has earned an extension through 2009.
Based on his current annual salary of $1.6 million, you do the math. This investment in Barnett is huge.
While beating the Tigers did not officially clinch the North Division title for CU, it’s all over except for the crying by those fine citizens of Nebraska, where the corn still grows high but the football program has gone fallow for another autumn.
Ugly controversies behind him, his future secure, all that’s left for Barnett to prove is the Buffaloes don’t have to be content with being second-best in the mighty Big 12 Conference.
As a teacher, Barnett has a doctorate in the growth and nurturing of his available talent. “This program … is built on playing its best football in November,” quarterback Joel Klatt said.
What Barnett must learn are the secrets of returning the Buffaloes to the true national dominance promised when he was hired in 1999.
There are recruiting issues in a Colorado program when the most valuable player is junior kicker Mason Crosby, who deserves to be the heir to Jason Elam in Denver, regardless of how expensive a draft pick it costs the Broncos.
If new assistant Darian Hagan cannot give the Buffs a compelling voice with prospects, then Barnett must hire a salesman who does not believe USC has exclusive rights to California.
The rows of empty seats in Folsom Field on a fine November afternoon makes you wonder how many CU alums really care if the Buffaloes make their fourth conference championship game appearance in the past five seasons.
The victory against Missouri was never in doubt. According to Barnett, before the opening kickoff, “I overhead one of the coaches and he said, ‘There isn’t any way we are going to lose this game.”‘
While the rings won by Colorado for division titles are a made-for-television honor, that 20-3 record since 2001 by the Buffaloes against the North is nothing to pooh-pooh.
“It’s a big deal,” Barnett said.
Far better to be where Barnett is standing than in the shaky shoes of Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, who has done a masterful job of undercutting the NFL value of quarterback Brad Smith.
You figure Nebraska would rather have Barnett on the sideline than Bill Callahan, whose infamous throat-slash gesture might ultimately be a preview of his own dire fate after the Cornhuskers get chopped down to size in Boulder on Thanksgiving weekend.
The men whose CU football tenure endured more than a decade are remembered as more than coaches. They became legends. Bill McCartney. Dal Ward. Fred Folsom. Their names are beloved, fondly etched in memories and buildings.
It is now Barnett’s challenge to live up to that legacy of greatness. He has earned the right to try.
Maybe the Buffaloes don’t have the No. 1 coach in America.
But if reality TV ever stages a pigskin version of “Survivor,” my money’s on Barney.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
