Rich Brooks is happy. He is we-just-signed-a-blue-chip happy, we-just-recovered-a-fumble-on-their-five happy. He is all-my-players-passed-their-classes happy. After eight years out of college football, at an age (62 on Aug. 20) when many of his colleagues have moved to the golf course, and with a football field at Oregon named in his honor, Brooks is wearing the blue and white of Kentucky and thrilled to do it.

It took Rich Brooks 18 years to build Oregon into a Pacific-10 champion. As soon as he did, in 1994, with all the national Coach of the Year awards in his back pocket, Brooks left college football behind for the greater challenge of the NFL. He coached the St. Louis Rams for two seasons (13-19) and got fired. He joined Dan Reeves as defensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons, went to the Super Bowl in 2000, and went home.

	A return to campus has Rich Brooks smiling.

It took him six years to figure out he would rather be at home with the remote in his hand than coaching in the NFL. He is ecstatic that the journey he started in 1994 became a round trip.

"Game day on a college campus is an exciting time," Brooks says. "There's not as much intrigue and mystery with a university as there is in a front office. People at a university are usually pulling the carriage in the same direction."

Brooks doesn't sound bitter, but he doesn't attempt to mask his feelings, either.

"It really was refreshing," Brooks says, "getting back to coaching guys who are a little bit wide-eyed and accepting of what you are trying to do to help them, instead of grizzled vets who are making so much money that they don't want to listen."

Brooks spent the last two seasons on the couch, bringing in every package of college games that his dish could find, trying not to go back to the peanut jar too quickly and hoping he could remain relevant in the game. He wasn't sure.

"It was looking more and more like I could be done," he says.

He had one interview, with San Diego State, and didn't like what he heard enough to remain interested. The first time that Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart called Brooks, it was to bounce names off of him. The second time he called, Brooks bounced his own name off of Barnhart. It didn't take long for the deal to percolate.

Judging by his staff, it is clear that the coaching community considered Brooks relevant. Among his assistants are former collegiate head coaches Mike Archer and Ron McBride, as well as Ron Hudson, who gave up his job as offensive coordinator at Big 12 power Kansas State to take the same job with Brooks. In 1977, when Brooks took over at Oregon, he hired Hudson. Twenty-six seasons later, Brooks hired him again.

As he did with the Ducks, Brooks has a climb ahead of him. Only 10 seniors return from the 7-5 team of a year ago. One of them gets enough attention for 10 -- Jared Lorenzen, the quarterback with an arm as big as his waistline. Brooks loves Lorenzen's talent. "I see a big-time player," Brooks says. "If you look at what he did -- 24 touchdowns, five interceptions -- that's an amazing year for any quarterback, let alone a quarterback at Kentucky. He can throw the ball as well as any quarterback I've been around. He can pull the ball down and run it. He's tough, one of the toughest guys I've been around."

Brooks explained to Lorenzen last winter that he expects his quarterback to be in shape, too. Lorenzen is listed at 6-foot-4, 260 lbs. Estimates of his weight have ranged much higher over the course of his career.

"I don't have a set weight in mind," Brooks says. "I agreed that I would not make his weight a public issue. I will talk about his conditioning level, his cardiovascular level. I want him to not wear down in the fourth quarter because of his conditioning. He admitted that he did last year."

Brooks dismisses the comparisons between Oregon, which was a Pac-10 have-not when he arrived, and Kentucky, which has shared one conference title since Bear Bryant left 50 years ago, and that co-champion ended up on NCAA probation. For one thing, Brooks says, Oregon never had a stadium with 67,000 seats. For another, Brooks doesn't plan to coach 18 years before he wins a conference championship. He wanted to come back to the college game, but a man has his limits.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.