Success of Stoops and troops has freed ex-UK QB Bill Ransdell from an ongoing torment
For decades after Bill Ransdell last played quarterback for Kentucky, he would see his name regularly mentioned in media stories related to UK football.
Ransdell, Kentucky’s starting QB from 1984 through 1986, did not enjoy the reasons for his ongoing relevance.
“Did not — N-O-T,” Ransdell said Wednesday. “I did not like any of that.”
From 1984 until 2006, Ransdell was “the last Kentucky quarterback to win a bowl game.”
It was 22 years before Andre Woodson relieved him of that designation in the 2006 Music City Bowl.
From 1984 until 2011, Ransdell was “the last Kentucky quarterback to beat Tennessee.”
It took 27 years before a wide receiver playing quarterback, Matt Roark, claimed that distinction in the 2011 regular-season finale.
From 1986 until 2018, Ransdell was “the last Kentucky quarterback to beat Florida.”
After 32 years, Terry Wilson relieved him of that mantle in The Swamp in the second game of 2018.
From 1984 until 2020, Ransdell was “the last Kentucky quarterback to beat Tennessee in Knoxville.”
It was 36 years before Wilson claimed that distinction in last year’s fourth game.
And from 1986 until this past Saturday night, Ransdell was “the last Kentucky quarterback to beat Florida in Lexington.”
Now, that, too, is no more. With Will Levis at the controls, Mark Stoops and troops upset then-No. 10 Florida 20-13 last weekend before an electric crowd of 61,632 at Kroger Field.
No one was more exhilarated by UK’s first home victory over the mighty Gators in 35 years than the quarterback responsible for the Cats’ most-recent, prior home win over UF.
It meant that what Ransdell had come to think of as “the last tos” were finally at an end.
“Being the last of anything like that, it is not progress,” Ransdell said. “For me, there was no record, no achievement, in being the ‘last to do’ this or that.”
On Saturday night, No. 16 Kentucky (5-0, 3-0 SEC) will face another one of the SEC’s traditional titans, LSU (3-2, 1-1 SEC), at Kroger Field.
UK will be seeking to start a season 6-0 for the first time since 1950.
LSU may be playing for the job of Tigers head man Ed Orgeron, whose program has gone 8-7 since Joe Burrow led the Bayou Bengals to the national championship after the 2019 season.
As a second-generation Kentucky football player, Ransdell has relished the building job Stoops has engineered as UK head coach. After starting his Wildcats coaching tenure 12-26, Stoops has gone 42-24 since.
Entering the LSU game, Stoops has directed Kentucky to a 23-22 mark in SEC games since the beginning of the 2016 season.
“I think they have done a really great job with the young men they have gotten here and developing (players),” Ransdell said. “And you’ve got to get buy-in. You’ve got to have a buy-in into your program, your coaches. You have to have a trust factor and a belief. And I think the guys trust and believe in Mark (Stoops). I think that is something you can see.”
As part of the fraternity of Kentucky starting quarterbacks, Ransdell remains optimistic about the potential of Levis, the Penn State transfer. Noting that opponents have taken the deep ball away from the strong-armed Levis after the Wildcats’ early success going long, Ransdell says the UK QB is going to have to adapt.
“He’s figuring some things out. He’s got to be patient and disciplined to take the 3-yard check-down throw. Or the 5- or 6- or 7-yarder,” Ransdell says. “Then, you come back and hit the zone curls. Then, when you get the defense into man coverage ... you’ve got a chance to hit a big one again.”
Ransdell attended his first UK football game, against Tennessee, as a 6-year-old in 1969 at Stoll Field. He was with his dad, a former Kentucky running back who also went by Bill Ransdell.
Allowed to buy a souvenir pennant, the younger Ransdell brought an orange one back to his seat.
The elder Ransdell, whose UK claim to fame was an 88-yard touchdown run against Xavier in 1960, calmly explained to his son he had gotten the wrong color.
“From that day on, I knew I was against the orange,” Bill Ransdell says.
Fifteen years later, Ransdell quarterbacked Kentucky to a 17-12 win over Tennessee in Neyland Stadium. After the Wildcats upset No. 20 Wisconsin 20-19 in the 1984 Hall of Fame Bowl, Ransdell had directed UK to a 9-3 season.
In 1986, Ransdell completed 20 of 23 passes to help Kentucky to a 10-3 win over Florida in what was his final home game as Wildcats QB.
As he walked off the turf the final time at the venue then called Commonwealth Stadium, Ransdell could have never conceived of the staying power his signature moments would have — due to long stretches of UK futility in replicating those achievements.
“People started calling me at 20 years,” Ransdell said of the anniversaries of his wins over Tennessee and Florida. “I’m not sorry that is over.”
Saturday
LSU at No. 16 Kentucky
When: 7:30 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
Records: LSU 3-2 (1-1 SEC); Kentucky 5-0 (3-0)
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: LSU leads 40-16-1
Last meeting: LSU won 41-3 on Oct. 18, 2014, in Baton Rouge, La.
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 3:03 PM.
