Smoke but no fire: Banished Barnett blackballed

There have been 23 jobs open up since last season. Surprise! Gary Barnett didn't get one of them.

Bigger surprise. Gary Barnett didn't even get an interview for one of them.

Gary Barnett coached three teams to conference titles. (Getty Images)

Not-so-surprising conclusion: Colorado's former coach might never be a major-college head coach again. It has been 14 months since he was fired, a $3 million settlement in hand. Unless there's another surprise somewhere out there between now and September, Barnett will be out of work for two consecutive seasons.

Try filling those holes on a resume. No work in your chosen profession for two years, maybe for the rest of your life, which means Barnett is dangerously close to being blackballed from college football.

We should be appalled.

Blackballed. When is the last time you heard that word applied to ... anyone? Maybe when the Deltas got booted out of Faber? Being blackballed is not a letter they send you or a rank you're busted down to. One day, it just is, and these days Gary Barnett is feeling pretty helpless.

"I think that's a concern but there's not much you can do about it," Barnett told me from his Scottsdale, Ariz., home.

He's doing TV work these days. He'll visit a few spring practices. Meanwhile, Stanford just hired a coach (Jim Harbaugh) who had never signed a Division I-A athlete to a letter of intent. Minnesota searched far and wide for the Broncos' tight ends coach (Tim Brewster) who had never been so much as a coordinator.

You tell me if Barnett isn't being blackballed.

Now that we've had the proper time to digest CU's recruiting scandal that really wasn't, it's clear the final victim might be the 60-year-old with three conference title rings.

Forget Rutgers for a moment. Barnett's turnaround job at Northwestern might be the most significant in the sport.

In his first game as Colorado's offensive coordinator, the Buffs beat Notre Dame to win the 1990 national championship. As CU's head coach, Barnett beat Texas -- in Texas -- for the Big 12 title in 2001, the school's first outright conference championship in 11 years. He left office having won four of five Big 12 North titles.

Who wouldn't want to hire this guy? Everyone, it turns out.