SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. ? Five months after his unceremonious exit from Colorado, Gary Barnett was standing in a hotel lobby when he was approached by a hyper young man claiming to be a college student in town on a job interview.

The student frantically explained he was stranded in town for an extra night, didn’t have any money and could really use some help finding a cheap hotel room … or money to pay for one.

Without pause, Barnett pulled two $100 bills out of his pocket and handed them to the man, along with a business card so he could make good on his promise to send money back to the coach.

Months went by. Barnett never saw the payback. He had tried to do the right thing, but he came out on the wrong end of the deal.

‘I don’t know what to do’

At first glance, it’s very clear things could be worse for the former Buffs coach.

He lives in a gorgeous house in the foothills of Scottsdale. His wife of 38 years, Mary, adores him. He plays lots of golf. He has a good job as a radio and TV analyst to keep his mind in the game should another school come calling someday.

Second chances in the coaching profession, after all, are as common as the rattlesnakes that slither about the desert scrub outside his house.

But now that he has sat out a year, including a hiring season in which he made it known he was available but never received so much as a phone call, Barnett wonders if “some day” will ever come.

“I don’t know what to do,” the coach said during a long, open and vulnerable interview that might have surprised those who know him only for his troubles at Colorado. “I’d like to be here strategizing, but there’s nothing you can do. There are no cards in our hands. I’m not in control of any of this.”

FORMER COLORADO UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL COACH GARY BARNETT and his wife, Mary, are shown at their home in Cave Creek, Ariz. Barnett would like to get back in the coaching game following his acrimonious split with the Buffs.

The reasons for Barnett’s downfall are well known.

He oversaw a program that became a symbol of everything wrong with big-time college sports. Allegations of rape, debauchery and malfeasance rained down during a two-year flurry of investigations, lawsuits, firings and resignations.

In the end, though, Barnett was done in simply for being a winning coach who lost his mojo. He was on his way toward a contract extension – he says he already had been cleared to tell his assistants the agreement was in place – until the Buffs lost their last three games by a combined score of 130-22.

In the court of public opinion, not much attention was paid to his wins and losses. There, he was convicted of being an aloof autocrat who fostered a climate that was hostile toward women, used unscrupulous methods to lure recruits, handled the program’s finances ineptly and was tone deaf when he tried to set things straight.

Despite all that – or maybe because of it – he wants back in the business, even though the $3 million buyout he received has the 60-year-old coach set for life.

“Once you’re a coach and you teach, that’s how you get fulfilled,” Barnett said. “You don’t just pull yourself away from that. You don’t just get pulled away from that without feeling some kind of tear. Especially the way it happened for us.”