I had a chance to sit down with WKU President Gary Ransdell yesterday to talk about this weekend’s WKU-UK football game and the influence blue has on campus.

But inevitably, more than just the Tops and Cats were discussed — the best of which was a reference that included comparing football Head Coach Willie Taggart to everyone’s favorite aging entertainer.

“Willie’s starting to be a little bit like Madonna — a guy with one name — because everyone knows who Willie is,” Ransdell said. “And he’s only coached one game.”

Ransdell, who went to Nebraska last weekend for Taggart’s first game as a head coach, said he sees obvious improvement in the Toppers from when the program was at the 1-AA level and playing programs like Georgia and Kansas State.

“Our fans would say, ‘Boy, I hope we don’t get anybody injured,'” Ransdell said. “We’ll, we’re way beyond that. We’re matching up physically and going toe to toe with these teams.”

Ransdell said he’s happy with the job Taggart has done so far up against a tough non-conference schedule.

“He’s doing everything that needs to be done,” Ransdell said. “Unfortunately he wasn’t handed any favors with the schedule starting with Nerbaska. Well, almost any team in the country that started with Nebraska would have been beat — anybody. So you’ve got to cut him some slack with that.

“I just have a hunch that we’re going to be competitive over these next few weeks, and this season we’ll have some fun and enjoy some success. At what level, I don’t know. How much, I don’t know.”