Mitch Barnhart has built one of the longest-running tenures in college athletics. He’s made strong hires, Kenny Brooks, Nick Mingione, and John Calipari among them, and overseen major success across Kentucky’s athletic department.
But his legacy isn’t spotless. The Kyra Elzy extension, NIL growing pains, Joker Phillips, and the Billy Gillispie fiasco all left marks. He has hurt football game-day experiences in order to raise more money for the K-Fund.
And as time goes on, one particular relationship
may define his current era more than any other.
The Barnhart-Stoops relationship and a question of perspective
Barnhart and football coach Mark Stoops have shared a long, loyal partnership. When John Calipari famously called Kentucky a “basketball school,” Barnhart publicly sided with Stoops.
When Calipari asked for new facilities, he was denied, but Stoops consistently received upgrades.
And while Cal may have asked for a lot, he did have to stop practice because of a leaky roof. That should never happen.
That loyalty to Stoops has fueled stability for a while, but it could also be clouding judgment when it comes to ripping off the band-aid and firing Mark. Just before the season started, he said:
“A one-year blip is not what I would call ‘not sustaining it.’ Now, if we go two or three more, a couple more years, and we’re still not back where we want to be, sure, then you have to have a conversation about, what are we trying to get to here?”
Then you had Stoops himself say it would take “2, 3” more years to get the roster right. Never mind what Indiana and other programs are doing.
“Don’t panic,” though.
Kentucky football has stagnated, and it is clear it is not a “blip,” losing 10 straight home SEC games and winning just four of its last 23 Power Five matchups. And that’s not even counting the 10-win 2021 season that got vacated due to rules violations.
I don’t know how much more you need, but there is more. Stoops’ record sits at 70–78 overall and 34–62 in SEC play, respectable given the program’s history, but no longer trending upward. And a lot of those came at a time when South Carolina, Vandy, Florida, and Missouri were struggling. Now those programs are moving up again while Kentucky swings downward.
After Kentucky’s narrow win over an Auburn team that fired its coach the next day, Barnhart celebrated alongside Stoops like it was a national title victory. But he wasn’t the only one who did. It was a symbolic moment, though: The two men who built the program’s modern identity were still standing together, even as results declined. Mitch sees Mark as his lasting legacy on the football program, not to mention someone who’s helped make much of his success as an AD a reality.
After all, had Stoops been fired during the tumultuous start of the 2016 season when his seat was scorching hot, perhaps even more so than now, Barnhart likely wouldn’t have been far behind, given that it would have made two straight failed football hires among other misses.
And had that happened, Barnhart’s legacy would have largely been a bad one, highlighted by failures like Joker Phillips, Billy Gillispie, Mickie DeMoss, and of course, Stoops.
However, Stoops managed to turn things around and finished the season at 7-6, firmly taking his name off the hot seat and also giving Barnhart some much-needed breathing room.
From there, Barnhart would go on to help further reshape UK Athletics for the better, including the baseball program’s first College World Series berth, volleyball’s first national championship, two 10-win seasons in football (even if one was vacated), and the track & field program becoming a national powerhouse. Barnhart was even named Athletic Director of the Year in 2019.
All of this success likely never happens if Stoops gets canned in 2016, so it’s easy to see why Barnhart feels so indebted to Stoops to a point where it’s fair to wonder if it’s clouding the AD’s judgment.
To Barnhart’s credit, his steady hand helped Kentucky football reach bowl games in seven of the last nine seasons, something that should be celebrated. But the current slide raises a fair question: Is loyalty now blinding accountability?
If Kentucky’s struggles continue against mid-tier Power Five competition, will Barnhart make the hard call? If the Cats lose to a coach-less Florida, can he bear to fire his friend? Or will the long bond between AD and coach delay what the program truly needs: A fresh start?
That’s not an easy question for any athletic director to face, but it may define Mitch Barnhart’s legacy as much as any hire he’s ever made.
So, is his judgment compromised? I will leave that to you in the comments to decide.
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Drew Holbrook is an avid Kentucky fan who has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion
