Brooks brings hard work ethic to UK program

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks says a lot of teams already have penciled in a "W" beside Kentucky's name on their 2003 schedules.

The way Brooks sees it, most teams figure the Wildcats will fade during the fourth quarters of games, as they have in the past.

"That will change," said Brooks, the former coach of the Rams. "They can put that 'W' there, but then they're going to have to go out and earn it."

To make the other teams do that, the new coach is putting an emphasis on getting the Wildcats in top shape before the season even starts.

"There is no excuse to be outconditioned," Brooks said. "I'm not going to say we're going to win every game in the fourth quarter, but it won't be for lack of conditioning."

That, in a nutshell, is Brooks' coaching philosophy. No one will outwork the 61-year-old Brooks, say those who have worked with him.

"He is a guy who has great energy and enthusiasm, not only for life, but for college football," said his boss, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart. "He is committed to getting it done."

Not short on enthusiasm

That's a trait that apparently hasn't changed during Brooks' coaching career, through stops long and short in college and the NFL.

Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, who worked as Brooks' offensive coordinator with the Ducks for six years before replacing Brooks, tells the story about a new assistant who had just moved from sunny Southern California. Soon after he was hired, he showed up for work on a rainy day and commented that the weather might keep the team from practicing.

"What he didn't know is there was no way we were not going to practice that day," Bellotti said. "Rich isn't going to say, 'Wait a couple of years and we'll be good.' He wants to win today. I'm sure he is gearing up now to get things done."

Kentucky's players certainly have noticed a change since Brooks' hiring on Dec. 30. Senior defensive end Jeremy Caudill said Brooks has emphasized conditioning.

"He let us know we would be an in-shape football team," Caudill said. "At the end of practice, we do our conditioning. That's something we didn't do before. At the end is when we're tired, and the coaches start pushing us."

Fourth quarters were struggles for Kentucky in two seasons under previous coach Guy Morriss, who left for Baylor.

Battling late slumps

In 2001, the Wildcats blew fourth-quarter leads and lost to LSU, Mississippi State and Tennessee. In 2002, Kentucky lost third-quarter leads to Florida and South Carolina and fell to LSU again on a 75-yard Hail Mary pass on the game's final play.

Brooks knows a thing or two about conditioning from his playing days. The son of a gold miner in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California, Brooks played both ways in high school and at Oregon State.

Brooks' coaching career began at Oregon State in 1963, working under his college coach, Tommy Prothro.

Brooks had three coaching stints at his alma mater, two in the NFL -- with the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers -- and two at UCLA before taking the head job at Oregon in 1977. At first, he ran into opposition at Oregon, having played for the Ducks' archrival. A 14-3-1 record against Oregon State eventually silenced those critics.

Like he is being asked to do at Kentucky, Brooks was charged at Oregon with taking a downtrodden program to greater heights. It took time. Oregon posted consecutive winning seasons in 1979 and 1980 for the first time in 16 years. The Ducks cracked the AP rankings in 1987, for the first time in 17 years. In 1989, they beat Tulsa in the Independence Bowl, Oregon's first bowl win in 26 years.

In 1994, Oregon won the Pacific-10 Conference title and played in the Rose Bowl, their fourth bowl game in Brooks' final six years. He went on to spend two years as the head coach of the NFL's Rams and four years as the defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, during which time the Falcons played in their only Super Bowl. He spent the last two seasons out of coaching.

Brooks said building a consistent winning program at Kentucky shouldn't be as difficult as it was at Oregon.