I was quoted in the Denver Post this morning in an article on fan and alumni reactions to the potential dismissal of Gary Barnett as head football coach at CU. Yesterday, Tom Kensler, a Denver Post sportswriter, called me after getting my name and number from a former coworker for my thoughts on the news and we chatted for about 20-25 minutes about Barnett and the state of the CU football program. My section of the article is as follows:
Shane Church, 26, was a sophomore at CU when Barnett was hired in 1999. A Westminster-based software engineer, he recalled the excitement caused by Barnett’s arrival.
“Everybody figured that with his background of having started coaching at Air Academy (High School), he’d be able to keep the good players in the state,” said Church, who doesn’t believe that has happened. “I’ll give Barnett credit for getting his teams to play better than they were projected before the season. But I want some talent here, too. We need a coach to get everybody in the state excited. We need the new coach to build a wall around the state.”
Church said that with the football programs at Nebraska and Kansas State down in recent years, CU had a chance to become a dominant team. “But Colorado missed that opportunity,” he said.
Read the rest of the article in today’s Denver Post sports section.
