In an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Chip Cosby, Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said he plans on staying at Kentucky despite rumors last month that was a candidate for the vacant Kansas athletics director position.
Barnhart, a Kansas native, told Cosby that there is still too much unfinished business at UK yet to be completed. Though he hasn’t officially been contacted by Kansas, he said he’s committed to Kentucky for the long haul.
“There have been a lot of rumblings about places that I’m going,” Barnhart said, according to Cosby’s report. “We’ve come to a spot in nine years. I think we can get to another spot moving forward. I like what I’m doing here.”
Barnhart cited his son, the relationships he’s built at UK and his continued push for upgraded facilities as his primary reasons for wanting to stay in Lexington.
“I think there’s a timeline for all these kinds of jobs,” Barnhart said. “But my goal when I leave is to have left it clearly better than what we found it; competitively in a better spot, and a facility infrastructure that the person that follows me can walk in and enjoy and being able to capitalize on those pieces and have a different level of success. We’re not done with that yet.”
