Barnett returns to Faurot Field

For Gary Barnett, this week has the same feeling as years past.

The former Missouri wide receiver (1966-69) and Colorado coach was one of 57,824 fans in attendance at Missouri’s game Saturday.

Barnett said it’s always special when he comes back to Columbia.

“Every other year I had a chance to come back and you know what? I always come back wanting to win and wanting to beat the Tigers,” Barnett said. “All my players know that when it’s Missouri week that I get a little more uptight, a little more intense. My body doesn’t change. I still feel that way.”

One thing that was different for Barnett on this visit to Columbia was his view of the game. He told a radio pregame show that Saturday’s game was the first college football in his life that he’s watched from the stands.

Another first for Barnett was being able to tailgate. He said that it was weird seeing people eating and drinking this early because he’s usually throwing up before the games.

The highlight of Barnett’s visit was seeing his former Buffaloes’ players at the team hotel Friday night.

“It was great to see them and see them growing up,” said Barnett, who coached at Colorado from 1999 through 2005.

Dan Hawkins, Colorado’s new coach, said he had no problem with the man he replaced addressing the team.

“Football seasons and jobs are temporary, but friendships are for a lifetime,” Hawkins said. “He is close to some of the guys on the team and I respect him too.”

Barnett said he wasn’t sure if he would return to the sidelines or not in the future. Currently he is doing national radio, and will be appearing on a TV show about the Bowl Championship Series.

Barnett was in town as a sponsor for a golf tournament on Friday in Lee Wagner’s name. Wagner, who died of lung cancer, was a former Tiger (1979-81) and player of Barnett’s. Barnett and Wagner were also both members of the fraternity, Beta Theta Pi. The former coach also came back to Missouri to visit his Mom, who lives about 25 miles away from Columbia.

THE CONVINCER: Ron Kiel of St. Charles walked up the three steps, took a seat and slowly pulled the seatbelt over his left shoulder. A state patrolman stood to his right, ran down a safety checklist with Kiel and pulled the lever.

The seat rattled down a track, reaching a speed of five miles per hour, before a head-on impact brought the cart to an abrupt stop. Kiel, whose split allegiance was evident by his Colorado hat and a Tigers T-shirt, jerked forward until he met his seatbelt.

“That’s five miles an hour?” Kiel said smiling, as he stepped out of the Seatbelt Convincer. “That’s brutal!”

The Convincer has been around for eight years, mainly making stops at high schools and events with teenage drivers in attendance. The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety hopes to show younger drivers what can happen even at slow speeds. The Coalition is made up of the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Missouri Highway Patrol and various sheriff departments and safe-driving groups across the state.

“If you see and feel the impact yourself, you get an idea of how bad it would be at highway speeds,” said Roger Schwartz, a member of the Transportation Department. “If not wearing a seatbelt, you’d be thrown through a windshield or crushed.”

Teen drivers are targeted because Missouri teen drivers wear seatbelts only 58 percent of the time as opposed to the 82 percent national average for all drivers.

Although the program doesn’t expect to reach everybody, members hope that it just reaches a few and reminds them to buckle up.

“I don’t normally wear one myself, but I will after that thing,” Kiel said.

GREAT CATCH: Some of the most impressive catches on Saturday were made before even the national anthem was played. And they weren’t on Faurot Field.

Fans lined up to cast a fishing line into the mouth of one of six inflatable bass that jutted out from a simulated lake. The simulation fishing experience, set up just inside the front gates of the stadium, was one of many promotional activities that Columbia’s Bass Pro Shop has brought to Missouri home games this season.

“Every game we are out here just to get our name out and give the kids something fun to do,” said Ann Carlson, the human resource manager for Columbia’s Bass Pro Shop.

The retailer plans to set up the simulation game at not only every home football game this season, but at nearly every event held at Mizzou Arena as well.

While the fishing game catered to the entertainment needs of young Tigers’ fans, the local retailer lured in other interests with its pre-game tailgate. Along with promotional giveaways and coupons, Bass Pro Shop passed out free samples of food seasoned with spices sold by the store.