Rick Barnes Has Been Saving Grace For Tennessee Athletics After Texas Fired Him 9 Years Ago | Trey Wallace

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- To make it to the Sweet 16, Tennessee will once again face the school that decided Rick Barnes had peaked. 

After 17 years as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns, the school decided after the 2014-2015 season that it was time to move on from the legendary head coach. At the same time, Tennessee was going through an awful transition of coaches that never put the Vols back in the spotlight like Bruce Pearl had done years before. 

For a coach that left such an impact on Texas, moving on was hard to do, but there was no time to sulk if Barnes wanted to continue coaching college basketball. While the situation was playing out in Texas, the Vols needed to find a coach who could bring the program back to life, and it didn't take long for both sides to find common ground. 

What was once a program that could draw ratings and fan support, athletic director Dave Hart messed up on the hiring of Donnie Tyndall and needed a mulligan. So, two days after Rick Barnes was fired at Texas, the Vols came calling and this was an opportunity that Barnes was not going to pass up, no matter how quick the transition would be. 

But if you think there is some type of hatred towards Texas after what went down, Rick Barnes will never publicly state it. Following the win over Saint Peter's in the NCAA Tournament opener on Thursday night, the former Longhorns coach knew what was coming next. 

"Well, I've got great respect for my time at the University of Texas, and I've got dear friends that they'll be friends until the day I die," Rick Barnes noted. "Like I said, great relationships with much of that staff, but I've been gone nine years, and I'm a Tennessee Volunteer. The time I had there was special because a lot of -- really there's a lot of people there that touched my life, and we've had a lot of people that have led that program and done extremely well.

"But I thank the good Lord for -- coming to Tennessee was a blessing. Maybe I didn't know it at the time. But I couldn't have asked for a better way to be in a position where my career will end."

Rick Barnes Was The Foundation For Tennessee Athletics During A Rebuild Phase

You've all heard the stories by now on how much dysfunction went on behind the scenes of the Tennessee athletic department. Whether it was the football program, women's basketball or even the baseball program at the time, the Vols needed someone to rescue them from mediocrity. They needed a name that would make a splash around college athletics, amid the Vols struggle to find consistent leadership around the university. 

For Rick Barnes, discussions with AD at the time Dave Hart actually started a week before he was let go by Texas, knowing that the writing was on the wall. But for Tennessee to get back to the levels they were at, they needed someone to come in and bring stability, which Barnes discussed on Friday. 

"Dave Hart interviewed me back in 1985 or '86, when I was an assistant at Ohio State and he was an Associate AD at East Carolina getting ready to become the AD, and we had known each other through that and me in the ACC.

"Actually before the final week or so that I was at Texas, we had started talking a little bit indirectly," Barnes recalled. "So Dave, when he hired me, he said, we really need to be able to program. He said we have good teams here. We've got a great tradition. We're looking for stability. We're looking for consistency. I can tell you our first year there we struggled with our fan base. I grew up three hours from Knoxville. I had no idea the support the volunteers got, not only in basketball, but in football, in every sport. It's truly amazing. I've never been around a fan base like what we have. That was kind of my marching orders to do that."

After two seasons of struggles,, Barnes third season in Knoxville led to a Southeastern Conference regular season championship, putting the Vols back on the map behind Admiral Schoefield and Grant Williams. 

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 09:  Grant Williams #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers high fives head coach Rick Barnes as he checks out of the second half of the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs at Talking Stick Resort Arena on December 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona.  The Volunteers defeated the  Bulldogs 76-73. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

They were back, the fans were back, and the administration was piggybacking off their success on the court. Before the season, they were picked to finish 13th in the conference, but went on to cut down the nets with an SEC title in the books. What was once a program that had found itself in a slump, the Vols were back to their winning ways, under a coach who had been fired by Texas just three years earlier. 

For the first time in a very long time, there was stability within the Tennessee athletic department, and a lot of that could be attributed to Rick Barnes. For the fans, it was a sign that the situation could be fixed with enough backing from the boosters and influential alumni of a school that was still paying-off buyouts of football coaches that seemed like a walking joke around college campuses. 

Looking back on those first few years in Knoxville, laying the groundwork with a group of players that endeared themselves to the Tennessee fan base ended up being the catalyst for what was to come. If it weren't for that 2017-2018 team, who knows what the Vols athletic department would look like at the moment.

Tennessee AD Danny White has done everything he can to help support Rick Barnes and the basketball program 

For a coach who has had four different athletic directors during his time at Tennessee, the one thing those ADs could count on has been the Vols basketball program. During an unstable time with John Currie being fired amid a football coaching search, with Phillip Fulmer taking over in what turned out to be a full-time basis, and then a change in leadership once again with Danny White being hired, it would've been easy to think one of the core athletic programs could take a hit. 

But Rick Barnes surrounded himself with a group of folks inside the basketball program that kept the train rolling, even when other programs like football and the women's basketball program were struggling to keep it on the tracks. And, the hard work paid off at the end, with Danny White and the current administration revitalizing the athletic department, while giving Rick Barnes everything he needed to succeed. 

"As you mentioned, there's been some different ADs in and out, once Dave (Hart) stepped away from it," Barnes recalled.  "This administration is the best I've ever been around when you think about Randy Boyd as the president of our UT system, and Donde Plowman, I've never been around anybody on campus that's led the way she has. 

"Danny White was the first AD hired by the president and the chancellor, and what he has done in the time that he's done it, you talk about a makeover, it's amazing what he's done and what he's done for every sport."

Everything Comes Full-Circle, Including Matchup With Texas In NCAA Tournament 

One would've had to thought this day would come for Rick Barnes, a man that is always hesitant to speak bad of his former employer. To be honest, i get it, it's been nine years since he coached his last game for Texas. Time usually heals all wounds, including ones that might seem like they would stick around for a lifetime. 

This will be the fourth time that Barnes has faced his former school, but even Barnes was a little skeptical about the NCAA committee's selection to have a potential matchup with Texas in the second round. 

"I don't know if they do that intentionally. I don't know. But it's always tough playing people that you know that know you -- we know each other," Rick Barnes said about Texas. "There's not going to be a lot of secrets now. We've been around each other, all of us. You look at his staff, there's a lot of guys on that staff that have been a big part of my career. I'm just blessed that I was able to spend that time with them.

But as Rick Barnes continued to grow at Tennessee, the Longhorns found out that it's difficult to replace a legend in the business. Texas has now had three different coaches since firing Rick Barnes. The Longhorns thought Shaka Smart would be the guy who rejuvenated the program, only to leave the program after the 2021 season. Then Chris Beard was tabbed to be the savior, only to be fired on January 5th, 2023 for a domestic violence incident. 

WACO, TX - JANUARY 31: Texas Longhorns head coach Rick Barnes looks on against the Baylor Bears on January 31, 2015 at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.  (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

Finally, it was former Rick Barnes assistant Rodney Terry who was tabbed as the permanent head coach following an interim season, which has paid off tremendously for the Longhorns after leading them to the elite-eight in his interim season. 

So here we sit, the current head coach of Tennessee is playing his former assistant at Texas, in what could only be seen as a full-circle moment for both coaches. 

But for the time being, what Rick Barnes has done for Tennessee will be hard to top, but if he hadn't been fired by Texas nine years ago, who knows where the Vols athletic department would be now. We all know where the basketball program is, but it's wild to think what would've happened if the Longhorns didn't pull the trigger over nine years ago. 

I know one thing, and it's that the Tennessee athletic department is in a much better place since Rick Barnes took the head coaching job in Knoxville.