He was used up by the end of the 7th year. He wasn't even believing his own message, so he left. Guess what a quick ascent and equally quick decent at Colorado that they still haven't fully recovered from.
That's revisionist history. We did NOT suck in 1998 because Barnett "wasn't even believing his own message."
In 1997, we went 5-7 because D'Wayne Bates got hurt during the week one shutout of Oklahoma. Bates missed 11 of 12 games. We lost to Wake by 7, Rice by 6, Wisky by 1, and #2 PSU by 3 points.
You don't think Bates would have had an impact on those games?
If losing Bates destroyed 1997, Lloyd Abramson ruined 1998 way back in 1995. Let's step back to spring of 1995. Abramson was anointed the starting QB -- as a RS frosh -- after spring practice. He quit football in August 1995, literally a few days before camp. Schnur, Chris Hamdorf, and Tim Hughes battled for the starting gig. Schnur won and the rest was history.
Fast forward to summer 1997, and Schnur's eligibility is up. Tim Hughes had started at QB way, way back in '94 but couldn't complete 50% of his passes. That was with Darnell Autry and Dennis Lundy lugging the leather in '94. If you couldn't complete 50% with those two in the backfield drawing the safeties up, it was going to be problem. Why else do you think Barnett recruited Abramson and was ready to hand him the job as a RS frosh in '95?
Hughes was the '97 starter and then Bates goes down. Losing season.
Now we're in 1998 and Hughes and Hamdorf was gone. We were supposed to have a 3-year starter at QB, but instead, we've got two rookies, Gavin Hoffman (who becomes the starter) and Nick Kreinbrink. Hoffman was really indecisive, but you could see that he had potential. Just wasn't ready yet. By the end of the season, he was in touch with Penn about going to Wharton and that's where he went.
Back in the summer of 1995, everybody thought that losing the projected 4-year starting QB would torpedo 1995, but in actuality, Abramson's departure damaged 1997 and 1998. Barney recruited a replacement, Hoffman, but Gav was too green. The whole team was rebuilding by then, but the talent coming in was unbelievable.
It's B.S. to say Barney "wasn't even believing his own message." That wasn't the problem. Cycling in a young team to replace a Rose Bowl squad was the problem. Doing it without an experienced QB or RB was a problem.