Has Wally Buono lost it? Don't pretend the question hasn't crossed your mind.

Last year he became the winningest coach in Canadian Football League history while guiding the B.C. Lions to their worst record and first losing season since he arrived in Vancouver in 2003.

Buono misjudged his team's talent, created a leadership vacuum by jettisoning too many veterans, allowed the Lions' identity to erode, was heavy-handed with staff and utterly unable to fix the mess when its extent became clear in mid-season.

The Lions' declined sharply for the second straight year, falling to eight wins from 11, down from 14 in 2007.

They made the playoffs only because the bottom three-quarters of the East Division was a joke, but the day of reckoning came in a 56-18 second-round loss to the Montreal Alouettes that was one of the most embarrassing of Buono's career.

In February, the Lions' coach and general manager turned 60.

Has he lost it?

Maybe he has found it because when the Lions open their main training camp Sunday in Kamloops, the guy Buono is most convinced belongs is himself.

"I have a greater sense of excitement and, honestly, I don't know what it came from," Buono says. "I don't know. All I know is the ability to want to coach is there, the excitement of wanting to do this is there. It's strange because it is a kind of a reversal a little bit."

Buono said it has been a long time since he felt as strongly as he does that he is where he needs to be -on the sidelines, coaching his team.

Five years ago, he would not have expected that.

Fresh from the heart surgery that probably saved his life, Buono was reflective and talked openly about the possibility of giving up coaching -if not the game itself -within a couple of years. There were other things he wanted to do, he said. Too many summers had already been spent on football.

At 55, he would not have expected to be coaching at 60.

At this stage, with four Grey Cups, 10 division titles and 235 CFL wins in his account, Buono could be spending weekends at his beachfront place in Parksville. He could be repaying his wife Sande for some of the family time he owes, although the debt is hopeless.

He has three grandchildren, two of them born 10 days apart in April. His son was married in May, just before Buono's youngest daughter got engaged.

It's time for Buono to be a grandfather. And had the Lions gone 13-5 last season and won the Grey Cup, maybe that would be his primary role.

You see, Buono knows the end of his career is coming. But he'll be damned if he allows it to arrive after an eight-win season and 38-point playoff loss that have people asking the question that started this column.

"Everything is going to be different this year," he promises. "The thing that you're hoping to be able to do is go back and re-establish some of the things you didn't have last year. That's why it's easier to come off an 8-10 season than a Grey Cup. It's proving to yourself again that you can build a good organization and a good football team."

In April, owner David Braley signed Buono to a contract extension that could keep him in charge through 2013, although the coach said he'll make a decision annually whether to continue. Would he have signed that deal had the Lions won the Grey Cup?

"Maybe I wouldn't have, right?" he admits. "What drives you a little bit is the disease of winning. I don't believe sports is fun at all. I don't believe what we do is fun at all. But I do believe it's fun to win.

"All the time and effort and emotional commitment that you make is worth it when you win."

To that end, we're already seeing a different Buono.

Uncharacteristically, he went on a CFL shopping spree during the winter to bring in veterans like Davis Sanchez, Keron Williams, Dennis Haley, Jamal Robertson and Derick Armstrong -players who can make an impact in the locker-room and on the field.

After what amounted to an intervention by old friend and player personnel director Roy Shivers, Buono vows to be a more inclusive leader. He will also be a more ruthless one when it comes to players.

"It's not that I'm harder," he says. "I'm opening my eyes to things that maybe at one time prevented me from making a hard decision. I was more patient. I believed in the veteran player and that, when all was said and done, he was going to step up. [Last season] some of them didn't. Some of the guys let us down that way. They let me down; I let them down.

"We've been preaching for six months: 'When you come to camp, come to work. Be physical. Have an attitude. If you don't have that, then I'm not going to give you the benefit of the doubt.'"

Buono neither looks nor sounds old when he says this.

"You know, an Italian father also looks after the grandkids," he says. "When I tell my kids my career is coming to an end, they don't want to hear about that. They want to let their kids experience what they experienced. And I keep telling them that's not going to be possible; their kids can't grow up with me coaching."

Maybe not.