Bucks for Brooks, high hopes for UK.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

Rich Brooks said `the stomach starts churning' when the first game of a season approaches, and so it is as he nears the opener of his fifth fall at Kentucky.

`There's always the big butterflies that are floating around inside me,' the 66-year-old Brooks said the other day.

As memory serves, some of those `butterflies' splashed onto the turf at Husky Stadium once. Or was it twice? And maybe another time or three during Brooks' 18-year tenure at Oregon, which ended with the Ducks winning the Pac-10 title in 1994 and advancing to their lone Rose Bowl appearance of the past half-century.

After three losing seasons at Kentucky, and with his job in jeopardy, Brooks found success with the Wildcats last season. With a 7-5 record

in the regular season, Kentucky earned a Music City Bowl berth and knocked off Clemson. Along the way, the coach was rewarded with a new contract, for four years and $11 million, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Except, now come the expectations. Kentucky has sold 51,000 season tickets for a schedule that includes eight home games. Instead of the usual opener against Louisville, the Wildcats kick it off against Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.

With a host of returning players from that 8-5 season, with quarterback Andre Woodson considered among the nation's best passers, there's certainly reason for the optimism in the Commonwealth.

Also some anxiety, first over how the Wildcats handle success.

`They've certainly been warned,' Brooks said. `We'll have a little more of a target on our uniform than we've had in the past.'

What causes Brooks concern? While the offense should be productive, there is a defense that allowed an average of 453 yards last season, and five times gave up more than 500 yards. The new defensive coordinator is Steve Brown, the all-American pass defender at Oregon who has coached the Kentucky secondary the past four years.

And, oh, that schedule. Kentucky is the only team in the country with six games against current members of the top 25.

While Louisville isn't the opener - a Brooks demand - the 'Cats will play host to their in-state rival Sept. 15, and Brooks is 0-4 against the Cardinals. To follow are Southeastern Conference games against top 25 opponents LSU, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas.

To have a winning season, Kentucky will need to defeat one of those six top 25 foes, and Brooks is 0-15 against the top 25 since he arrived in Lexington.

Kentucky hasn't posted consecutive winning seasons since going 6-5-1 in 1983 and 9-3 in 1984. In fact, the Wildcats have finished a season over .500 only eight times since 1965. Since the SEC expanded in 1993 to 12 teams, and each played eight league games, Kentucky has never done better than 4-4 in league.

`Obviously, Kentucky has had some good teams since '93, but they haven't really kept it consistent because of various problems,' Brooks said. `Either recruiting or some other problems.'

Such as the NCAA penalties that Brooks inherited.

So here go the Wildcats, more optimistic than ever. That's what an 8-5 season will do, after Brooks' first three Kentucky teams went 9-25.

`The confidence is the highest it's been in the five years I've been here,' said defensive end Dominic Lewis, along for the entire ride with Brooks. `It's beautiful.'

Paterno starts 42nd

Penn State's opening game against Florida International will mark the start of the 42nd season for Joe Paterno as head coach of the Nittany Lions. He said he'll be back on the sidelines, too, after a broken leg put him in the press box for the final three games of the 2006 season.

`I think I'm 100 percent, ' the 80-year-old Paterno told reporters. `I'm not as fast as I used to be. But when I was 18, there was not a girl that was quick enough for me.'

Paterno's 42nd season as the head coach in Happy Valley will surpass the previous record of 41 at one school, the tenure of Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago from 1892 through 1932. There have been 798 coaching changes at Division I schools since Paterno worked his first game as head coach at Penn State on Sept. 17, 1966.

Paterno said he has no plans to retire, even if there is occasional media speculation he's on his way out, either for losing games ... or touch.

Paterno also doesn't use e-mail, nor a cell phone. And he wasn't sure what to think when the NCAA was debating its rule change on coaches sending text messages to recruits.

Explained Paterno: `My wife had to tell me, `Joe, it's not tech, it's text'.

Should be favored

Hawaii is the trendy pick to be this season's version of Utah or Boise State, the team that wins its way into a berth in a Bowl Championship Series game from outside of one of the six BCS leagues.

Well, why not? The Warriors will play a schedule that has 12-0 written all over it.

The nonleague opponents begin with Northern Colorado on Saturday, followed by UNLV, Charleston Southern and Washington. Of the Western Athletic Conference foes who might challenge Hawaii, the Warriors get both Boise State and Fresno State in Honolulu.

The Hokies' opponent

Virginia Tech's opener on Saturday will bring the ESPN cameras to Blacksburg, Va., for both a telecast of the game against East Carolina, and the GameDay production.

Much will be made of the students overcoming the trauma of last spring's tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus, and the outpouring of support from around the nation.

And the football?

`We're going to have to be prepared to line up and play the game,' East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said. `There's a lot of people, (who) not only don't think we can win, they don't think we can make a first down.'

Holtz has been involved in what he called `emotion' games before this one. As an assistant at South Carolina in 2001, the Gamecocks played on a Thursday at Mississippi State in the first college game after 9/11.

As the head coach at East Carolina two years ago, Holtz took his team to Marshall for the first meeting between the two teams since the 1970 plane crash that killed 75 players and members of the traveling party from Marshall as it returned from a game at East Carolina.

Pac-10 preview

Or at least part way around the league ...

Washington, which opens tonight at Syracuse, will now list all of its players by academic class rather than athletic eligibility.

That's apparently a reaction to the flap last season when a handful of players listed as juniors were honored before the final home game, after UW coach Tyrone Willingham decided they wouldn't be returning for a fifth year even if they had eligibility remaining.

Thus, Jake Locker is listed as a sophomore, though he's never taken a snap as a quarterback for the Huskies.

California thinks it really has something in running back Jahvid Best, who rushed for 3,224 yards as a high school senior last fall and then won the state championship in the 100 meters in 10.31.

`Two words come to mind: Reggie Bush,' Cal linebacker Zack Follett said. `I'm glad he's on our team ... he's definitely a special talent.'

Another Pac-10 freshman of note is Rob Gronkowski, a tight end at Arizona.

`Everybody in the country dies to have a guy who looks like that,' UA tight ends coach Dana Dimel said.

`Nobody has tight ends who look like that kid does. And that's why he was recruited by everybody in the country."

Odds at the end ...

Alaska is the only state where the governor is paid more than any of the state's college coaches, according to a survey done by the Kansas City Star. That's also a state where there isn't a college football team. Gov. Sarah Palin is paid an annual salary of $125,000; the highest-paid coach in the state is Dave Shyiak, hockey coach at Alaska-Anchorage, at $112,000. ... the Big 12 took heat last year when it went a cumulative 0-14 against top 25 opponents in non-league games. That futility is likely to continue Saturday with Baylor at No. 22 TCU, Oklahoma State at No. 13 Georgia and Kansas State at No. 18 Auburn