By MICHAEL SMITH
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Rich Brooks, the former coach at the University of Oregon and the St. Louis Rams, has accepted the job as the University of Kentucky's new football coach, his wife Karen said Saturday night.

Brooks, 61, who has been out of coaching the past two seasons, was in Lexington Saturday as he and UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart put the final touches on their negotiations.

Brooks' hiring, expected to be announced on Monday, puts an end to the Wildcats' search to replace Guy Morriss, who left Dec. 9 for the Baylor job.

Barnhart said he couldn't comment on Brooks, but that an announcement could come in the next two days. Brooks did not return messages left on his cellular phone.

The highlight of Brooks' coaching career came in 1994, when he guided Oregon to the Pacific-10 Conference championship and earned national coach of the year honors. His Ducks advanced to the Rose Bowl that season - for the first time in 37 years - where they were defeated by Penn State, 38-20.

Brooks had been the Ducks' coach since 1977 and compiled a 91-109-4 record, including 39-32 in his final six seasons there. He parlayed Oregon's Rose Bowl appearance into the job with the Rams, where he was 13-19 in two seasons before being fired.

Brooks then went to work as the defensive coordinator for Dan Reeves with the Atlanta Falcons. He resigned in January, 2001, saying he wanted to pursue other head-coaching opportunities.

After nearly two years of waiting, Brooks found a home with the Wildcats.

Barnhart's search started with perhaps the biggest name in coaching, Bill Parcells, veered toward Southern California offensive coordinator Norm Chow and former Georgia coach Jim Donnan, and made a stop as recently as Friday with Grambling coach Doug Williams, who wanted to make history by becoming the first African-American head coach in the Southeastern Conference.

Barnhart revealed Saturday that Parcells, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, was the focus of his search for the better part of two weeks.

Barnhart flew to New York on Dec. 11 to meet with Parcells and the two talked often over the next four or five days, Barnhart said. The athletic director offered the job to Parcells and thought at one time they were close to striking a deal.

But about that time, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones entered the sweepstakes and Parcells delayed his decision.

"We left the door open, but we felt it reached a point where we needed to move on," Barnhart said. "We were put in a tough situation and if we had waited much longer, we would have compromised our ability to have a quality search."

When Barnhart decided to move past Parcells, he turned his attention last weekend to Mississippi coach David Cutcliffe, with whom Barnhart worked at Tennessee for 12 years.

Cutcliffe withdrew his name from consideration on Dec. 21, which began a string of near-misses for Barnhart.

Chow turned down an offer on Tuesday, and Donnan pulled out as a candidate on Thursday, as did Central Florida coach Mike Kruczek. At that point, Barnhart regrouped and interviewed Williams, a former Super Bowl MVP, who has coached Grambling to three straight Southwestern Athletic Conference titles, and Brooks.

Barnhart knew Brooks from when the pair worked together at Oregon in 1983, Barnhart as director of the Duck Athletic Fund and Brooks as the Ducks' coach.

There was another link between Brooks and UK that proved important. Brooks worked 11 seasons at Oregon with athletic director Bill Byrne, whose son, Greg, is now an associate athletic director with the Cats.

Williams, who met with Barnhart on Friday at the Cincinnati airport, said he was disappointed.

"There's nothing I can do about it," Williams said. "I gave it my best shot and I felt good about the talks I had with Kentucky."

Coaching turnover

Rich Brooks will be UK's fourth football coach in the past 12 years. The previous three and their years:

Coach	Years
Bill Curry	1990-96
Hal Mumme	1997-00
Guy Morriss	2001-02

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