A while back (over the summer, I believe) I made a post asking where all the love was for head coach Rich Brooks and the coaching job he’s done at UK.

I questioned the lack of respect he gets and wondered if it was simply for everyone’s lack of respect for UK or the barriers of history and traditional stereotypes that UK would have to overcome to be taken seriously.

Well, good ol’ Brooks is finally getting some of the respect that he deserves after yet another brilliant coaching job. Without one the team’s top defensive players, cornerback Trevard Lindley, its starting quarterback, Mike Hartline, and Jeremy Jarmon, Brooks has somehow put UK in a position to make a fourth straight bowl appearance.

Time will tell what Brooks’ legacy at UK is, but these comments prove he’s finally getting some respect:

– Jess Nicholas, editor in chief of TideFans.com, ranks Brooks third for coaching job of the year so far. Brooks trails only Florida’s Urban Meyer and Alabama’s Nick Saban, who respectively guide the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation.

Said Nicholas: “Brooks will likely never get the respect he deserves from Southern college football fans, simply because they weren’t familiar with his time at Oregon. Brooks built the Ducks from less than nothing and then handed off a healthy contender to Mike Bellotti. Will he do the same thing with Joker Phillips at Kentucky?”

– The Post and Courier’s Travis Haney gives Brooks a thumbs up in his latest rundown of the SEC.Of Brooks, Haney says: “One of the nicest guys in the league, and he consistently gets it done at a place where it’s difficult to do so. Reeling without its starting QB, Kentucky goes on the road and beats Auburn. Two wins from another bowl berth.”