Mitch Barnhart said a general manager is not a must for talent evaluation. (Keith Taylor/Kentucky Today)
New Kentucky football coach Will Stein says the player evaluation process today is constantly changing, especially given the financial implications and what schools must do to ensure they are in compliance.
“That’s why we’re going to have the best general manager in the country being here with me. I know I can’t report on that just yet. I’m sure that will come out very soon,” Stein said at his introductory press conference on Wednesday. “Yeah, there is a financial piece to it now.
“To me, the best trait of a college football coach now is adaptability. We got to adapt. If you all are still saying, I wish it was like the old days. It ain’t the olden days. It’s not. Get that out of your mind. Let’s push forward. Let’s move forward in this process. How do you do that? It takes everybody in this room, young and old. Everybody in this room.
“But yeah, evaluation, recruiting, in-person evaluation, out-person evaluation. Get them to the campus as many times as possible during the recruitment periods. Then just closing the deal, got to close. How do you do that? Like I mentioned, it’s building relationships. Not always being the highest bidder. But this is the best place people can come to play football. They got to believe that in their hearts.”
Oregon director of recruiting Pat Biondo is Stein’s choice to be UK’s general manager — a role former UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow took at Louisville when he left Kentucky last summer.
Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart is not as big on adaptability as Stein, especially when it comes to having a general manager of football.
“I think it’s just semantics. General manager, player personnel, talent acquisition coordinator, I’ve heard all that stuff. There’s 19 different titles out there,” Barnhart said. “The structure, it all comes down to the same thing. It comes down to talent evaluation, talent acquisition, and putting things in place that legally allow you to compete.
“All this notion that coaches aren’t controlling their rosters and they’re not making decisions, it’s ridiculous. At the end of the day, the coach is going to put in that program who he wants to put in that program to make plays. Period. Or he’s not going to be the coach very long. If he’s allowing someone to sit down the hallway and make those decisions for him, he will not be the coach very long. So it has to be integrated. It has to work together. It will work together for us.”
10 Responses
Barney needs to get with the program
Even better if someone got him out of the program! He is clueless in most important issues.
He has had 25 years to get with the program…..hopefully, he will be getting OUT of the program at the end of this academic year!
Listen to a proven winner – Will Srein
Do not let the loser AD make any decisions or override the needs/wants if the new HC.
Hire a GM and remove Barnie from the FB program! Let him run his minor sports programs which cost money instead of producing revenue.
All the major programs have one.. its a new era..
Maybe Barnhart don't want to lose some control?
Accountability issues?
Transparency issues?
Legit questions
IF rebates for crazy contracts are being deposited into a Cayman’s Account, extra eyes could see some $$$ going thru a transfer portal rather than players.
Barnie prefers to contract out his responsibilities to the company with direct relative ties to the Assistant AD. What a sham!
Mitch Barnhart is the best AD the University of Kentucky has ever had. Look at the program in the ebb and flow of all student athletes, and sports he has been the overseer. I agree with much of what he says concerning NIL and all that nonsense too. That said, and in this era of college athletics, give Coach Stein what he wants, and call the position what ever you want GM, Player Evaluation Director, etc. The biggest problem UK is going to have IMO for football recruiting is NIL money. I agree the college sports scene has been forever changed and all must adapt like it or not.
As Barney would say “ citizens arrest, citizens arrest “.
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