TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The two words are still burned in Rich Brooks’ mind, just like they’re seared forever in the annals of SEC media days. Brooks, then having completed his fourth season as Kentucky’s head coach in 2007, stepped to the pulpit in the main room of the annual preseason event, hundreds of reporters before him, many of them having predicted his firing the year before, and he bellowed before anything else, “I’m baaaaaack!” Laughter ensued.
Brooks, now long retired and living in Oregon, relived that event with a reporter this Saturday from Bryant-Denny Stadium ahead of Alabama’s showdown with LSU.