CU puts Barnett on leave (after "poor" response to rape allegations)

University of Colorado president Betsy Hoffman put football coach Gary Barnett on paid administrative leave Wednesday night, saying she was "utterly distressed" by a police report that describes Barnett as siding "100 percent" with a player accused of rape.

She also cited comments Barnett made about former CU place-kicker Katie Hnida, another of the five women who have now alleged sexual assault by CU football players or recruits.

"Our decision was based on coach Barnett's recent remarks about former student Katie Hnida's athletic abilities," Hoffman said. "His remarks about her were extremely inappropriate and insensitive. Rape is a horrific allegation, and it should be taken seriously."

On Tuesday, after Hnida went public with the allegation she was raped, Barnett called the former CU Buffalo a "terrible" kicker who "couldn't kick the ball through the uprights."

In a statement Wednesday night, Barnett said his remarks about Hnida had been misunderstood.

"I apologize for answering that question in a manner where I must have come across as insensitive," he said. "... I am very sensitive to Katie's allegations; I want to do whatever I can to help Katie."

He said that, as a "team player," he will abide by Hoffman's decision to suspend him from actively running the football program.

Barnett also said there were "some inaccuracies" in the 2001 police report. That Boulder Police Department report stemmed from allegations from another woman who says that a player raped her in September 2001 and that Barnett told her if she pursued criminal charges he would side with the player.

CU-Boulder chancellor Richard Byyny said that Barnett never notified senior CU officials about the September 2001 rape charge and that he should have.

Regina Cowles, president of the National Organization for Women's Boulder chapter, said she thinks CU should have fired both Barnett and athletic director Dick Tharp on Wednesday.

"It's just outrageous because I just don't know what it's going to take to get CU, the administration's attention on this. They say the words that they're taking this seriously, and I believe that they want to, but I wonder if they know how to," she said.

"His comments about Katie Hnida were malicious victim-bashing," she said. "And it is really revolting to me to hear him say that these comments were taken out of context when they have been played back on tape dozens of times."

In those comments, Barnett said: "It was obvious that Katie was not very good. She was awful. You know what guys do - they respect your ability. Katie was a girl, and not only was she a girl, she was terrible. There's no other way to say it. She couldn't kick the ball through the uprights."

Barnett will remain on paid leave until April 30, the date that an independent panel convened by the CU Board of Regents this week is expected to finish an inquiry into the football team's recruiting practices, Hoffman said.

Tharp said in a statement that he also was disturbed by Barnett's criticisms of Hnida.

It has not yet been determined how the football team will be run between now and April 30, he said.

"In the coming days, I will meet with ... Barnett and members of the coaching staff and the football team to jointly develop a plan for moving forward during this period," he said.

Hoffman said her announcement, which was made at 10 p.m. Wednesday, was not easy to make.

"We did not act in haste, we will not act in haste in the future, but we believe we've done the right thing," she said.

"In view of the serious allegations concerning the CU football program, the action taken this evening by president Hoffman is both appropriate and necessary," he said.

The woman whose allegation became public Wednesday evening told police in October 2001 that Barnett responded to her complaint by saying "that he would back his player 100 percent if she took this forward in the criminal process," according to a 16-page Boulder Police Department account of the incident.

The department blacked out the name of the player and the name of the alleged victim from the report.

The report said that police closed the case because the woman wanted "to wait and see" if Barnett made good on his promise to take care of the problem.

Barnett's suspension comes exactly three weeks after depositions taken in the federal lawsuit of a woman suing the school were released.

That woman, Lisa Simpson, alleges she was gang-raped at a party at her off-campus apartment in Boulder attended by football players and recruits Dec. 7, 2001. Since she filed her federal lawsuit in 2002, two other women have filed similar suits.

All three are suing under Title IX, the federal law against gender discrimination in federally funded schools.

The three women allege that CU athletic department officials like Barnett and Tharp have known that football recruits were being entertained in ways that could lead to sexual assault but failed to stop the practice.

Boulder County District Attorney Mary Keenan, a potential witness in the lawsuit, said in her deposition that she believed CU used sex and alcohol to recruit football players.

Throughout the lawsuit, Hoffman, Byyny, Tharp, Barnett and other CU officials have denied the charge that they have either endorsed or willfully ignored the alleged mistreatment of women in the football recruiting program.

On Tuesday, Barnett told reporters that he would not resign, because he had done nothing wrong.

After the coach was put on leave Wednesday, his players said they support Barnett, who came to CU with a reputation as a disciplinarian.

Quarterback Joel Klatt stood behind Barnett after seeing the news conference on television, saying he'd "never seen coach Barnett do anything unethical."

"I'm not going to say he's been treated unfairly," he said. "There's been some hard things to overcome. But I think the main thing people need to realize is there are no facts right now. There is no evidence. Until those things come out, it's very hard to judge him as a person first and, second, as a coach."

Russell Sprague, father of Buffs receiver Dusty Sprague, said he and his family have found Barnett and his staff to have "the utmost integrity."

Asked of his reaction to Barnett's administrative leave, Sprague replied, "I'm just sad, and the reason I'm sad, I respect the young lady and I want things to be fully investigated, but I'm sad for him because I've seen a different side. We've seen a coach who, with my son anyway, has made him accountable and made him do the right things."

On campus, some students said they also were shocked by Barnett's alleged reaction in 2001.

"If he knew about it and didn't do anything, it's almost like he's supporting it," freshman Mindy Malone said.

But junior Joey Morris said that the new report confirmed some of the allegations that have already been lodged against the football team.

CU Regent Gail Schwartz said she was "sickened" by Barnett's comments about Hnida on Tuesday.

"We need to move him from that environment so we can find out exactly what is going on," she said.

Schwartz said Hoffman and Byyny are right to trust the volunteer citizens' panel to investigate the football program and clear or indict Barnett by the April 30 deadline.

"We have competent people who have good advice and good help to make a reasonable assessment," she said.

CU Regent Jim Martin, who has been outspoken about the sexual assault allegations, said "swift action" was required even before an independent investigative commission appointed by the board of regents Monday could begin its work.

Tharp also should be held accountable for what Martin described as an increasingly questionable environment fostered in the football program, he said.

"It's not just Gary Barnett," Martin said. "The athletic director (Tharp) is really the CEO of the athletic department, so we need to be as equally critical of his participation or lack thereof and whether he's done his job. Gary Barnett is not the only wrongdoer in this. As far as management, you have to look up the chain."

"If it's true, that's obstruction of justice. That's as bad as the act itself, and it puts a whole different light on the credibility of Gary Barnett," he said.

"I'm really sad that something couldn't be done earlier. I've tried to work with people over the years to address this issue," she said.

Keenan said she had told Hoffman about the September 2001 incident two weeks ago. Notes taken during that meeting by a university staffer indicate that Barnett also threatened the job of that alleged victim, an athletic department employee.

"I may be prejudiced, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the vicious treatment High School Freshman from the @$$hole Varsity football players with the gym coach encouraging their terrorism against the smaller weaker guys. So I love it when I see sports-bullies eat dirt.

I hope they prosecute and imprison with maximum sentences every single player who harassed this chick. Put them all on the sex offender registry. Post their photos in whatever communities they try to live. Make their lives the same miserable hell they gleefully inflicted on others. "

the same for kobe bryant?

Couple of things while y'all are gathering the firewood to burn me at the stake....

1. What does talking about her abilities as a player have to do with rape? Why is it insensitive? One has nothing to do with the other.

2. College football..... 99.99999% men. If you're gonna play with the boys and try to be one of the boys, you're gonna get talked to like you're one of the boys. They sometime use foul language and call people names. GET OVER IT. Oh, I forgot, that's not PC.

3. Why don't these women report the rapes when they happen? When did we become of society of guilty until proven innocent? That evidence has no value and accusation has all value?

/rant off

I gather she is a member of "that utterly discredited group of hard left lesbians" simply by virtue of the fact that she works as an administrator on a college campus, or do you have any actual quotes where she specifically defended Clinton. My quick google on the topic turned up nothing, but I confess it was just a quickie.

On the basis of a statement she made about the Hnida case, she has been branded a hypocrite, because (as far I can tell), OK, I'm having trouble coming up with the "because".

So, apparently, in order to be credible, a female college administrator, when talking about sexual assault on campus, must also include the words "and I was also appalled by the allegations of rape made against Bill Clinton", or at the very least, one must be able to google quotes from the past in which she has made this comment. Silence on the topic, or lack of attributable quotes is not enough.

OK.

1. What does talking about her abilities as a player have to do with rape? Why is it insensitive? One has nothing to do with the other.
_____

exactly. In a news conference about the allegations, why did he bring up her performance. as you say... "One has nothing to do with the other. "

I think the point you reference in #2 is off a bit, the allegations do not stop at foul language, the way your comment does. I don't think she alleges that she was raped with foul language.

I cannot answer your #3. I'm not a woman.

1. What does talking about her abilities as a player have to do with rape? Why is it insensitive? One has nothing to do with the other.
Barnett explicitly connected her ability to what happened to her: "It was obvious that Katie was not very good. She was awful. You know what guys do - they respect your ability." And in Barnett's world, apparently "what guys do" when they don't respect your ability is rape you if you're a girl.

2. College football..... 99.99999% men. If you're gonna play with the boys and try to be one of the boys, you're gonna get talked to like you're one of the boys. They sometime use foul language and call people names. GET OVER IT. Oh, I forgot, that's not PC.
Are you reading the same story the rest of us are reading? Rape is not "foul language," nor is complaining about it "PC."

3. Why don't these women report the rapes when they happen? When did we become of society of guilty until proven innocent? That evidence has no value and accusation has all value?
One reason women don't report rape could be because when they do they get the kind of treatment you seem to want to give them, telling them to stop whining about "being called names." Who is (or at least was) the most powerful person at Colorado University, if not the whole state? Not the chancellor or the governor, but the head football coach. When he tells a woman that he will back his player "100%" if she follows through with a criminal complaint, her choice is to either shut up or risk getting screwed again.

In the world of professional and college sports, skill and performance on the field is everything, and certainly trumps morality or criminality. In the eyes of many of these coaches (and the boosters, too), a rapist who is a first-rate athlete is superior. They don't want their star athletes raping and killing people, but it is primarily because if they get caught, the team might be deprived of their services.

This is the down side of a highly competetive environment where performance becomes the entire measure of the person. In business or sports, criminals and moral degenerates sometimes perform exceptionally well, and they will be protected for longer than they would be protected if they were average performers. This is natural, but not laudable or to be encouraged.

"Looks like Frank Solich might finally have a shot at a new coaching job.
"

Now there's a thought. What an irony if Solich coached CU to a National Title, while Callahan is trying to force the West Coast offense on a traditional power team.

After being fired for such a "terrible" 9-3 record at Nebraska, he moves to another Big 12 team and kicks Husker butt.

I'm a Husker fan from way back, but I'd almost like this.

From what I've read, I don't believe that Katie was playing football with the expectation that she would be held to lower standards, or so that she could feel warm and fuzzy about herself.

I mean, let's face it, we're talking kickers here. They don't exactly set the standards for big-time macho men. LOL. Listening to many pro football players comments about kickers, one might reach the conclusion that they think the kickers are all girls.

Once accused, the alleged perp and all his loved ones must immediately prostrate themselves?

On Tuesday, after Hnida went public with the allegation she was raped, Barnett called the former CU Buffalo a "terrible" kicker who "couldn't kick the ball through the uprights." In a statement Wednesday night, Barnett said his remarks about Hnida had been misunderstood.

I think you're missing the point. Barnett, as I understood from this article and numerous radio comments, has been put on leave because of his statements comcerning Hnida.

If the allegations prove true, what do Barnett's statements say about him and his attitudes? In my mind, they mean Barnett gave at least tacit approval to his players using Hnida for the only thing she was really good for in their eyes - RAPE.

Careful, she didn't force her way onto this team. She was #1 Invited to walk on #2 Re-invited by GB #3 Allowed to stay on and expend valuable team resources.

GB obviously didn't like having her their, but she obviously had support from someone on the team...probably her position coaches.

My take on this is, had GB not been a big pu$$y none of this would have happend!

If she truley was "horrible" then she would have been gone. If not, than Barnett was too big of a sissy to stand up to campus feminazis.

Barnett was also to much of a sissy to assert leadership to a group of impressionable youth. She wasn't raped because she had imposed herself on a male sport, she was raped because the individule though he could. The systematic abuse this woman went through gradually escallated until she eventually was raped. Had Barnett lead, and dealt with this in the beginning, it would never have happend. He allowed a vaccum in command, and 19 year olds filled it. This falls directly on Barnetts hand. We can argue for and against women in NCAA football (I'm against it), but she earned a place on the team, and Barnett failed in his responsibilites to lead.

She is also the daugher of a US Army Col. now serving in Iraq. She has as much to do with NOW as Ann Coulter. Had the daughter of anyone here, Barnett would take a bullet.

Quite Frankly, she looks pretty butch for a kicker:)

Oh, for heaven's sake. He criticized her kicking; he didn't say she wasn't raped. As a Husker, I hate the Buffaloes, but this is going too far.

Why don't we just make football a single-sex sport, like women's volleyball? Women kickers come along every now again. They perform marginally, never make first string, and are always one blown snap away from a major injury.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.