FAYETTEVILLE — Perhaps no one is more ready to hit the football field Saturday during Arkansas’ 3 p.m. season-opener with visiting Louisiana Tech than redshirt sophomore linebacker-turned-defensive end Randy Ramsey.
Ramsey (6-4, 220) played in seven games, started one contest and had eight tackles as a true freshman in 2014, but was ineligible to play last season.
He chose to return to the Razorbacks as a walk on last spring with the blessing of head coach Bret Bielema and was awarded his scholarship back heading into this season.
“I’m excited,” Ramsey said. “I sit the whole year last year and I am excited for this Saturday..I am just ready to get out there. It doesn’t matter if it is special teams. Just put me on the field.
“…I just want to prove that I’m that guy I was coming into my freshman year, an explosive guy.”
Arkansas defensive line coach Rory Segrest is proud of Ramsey, whose current role is slated to be as a third-down pass rusher.
“You know any time that a guy comes back and walks on and works his way back into a spot and not just that, but the way he has performed since he has gotten back out on the field - he is showing great quickness off the edge, he is explosive for us there - so I am anticipating some big things for him,” Segrest said. “I’m definitely proud of what he has been able to do.”
Ramsey, who had three sacks in the first scrimmage of fall camp, admits that he has grown a lot since that freshman season.
“Coach B knew, he recruited me because I uncommon guy,” Ramsey said. “He likes to use that word a lot. I just had to prove it to him. It was inside of me and I just had to prove to him that I could be that guy that he recruited.”
That meant doing things the right way on and off the field.
“It is easy because once you do the right thing, good things happen,” Ramsey said. “That was easy for me.”
It was a tough decision for Ramsey to walk on and have to pay his own way this past spring semester.
“It was real tough actually,” Ramsey said. “I was real close to going juco, but I talked to my mom and I thought I needed to come back because I didn’t do things the right way and I wanted to come back.”
Obviously there was a lot of joy in the Ramsey household when news of returning to scholarship status arrived.
“When I got my scholarship, it was a feeling that I can’t explain,” Ramsey said. “I just thank God. All the hard work paid off to get back here and I just thank Coach B for putting me back on.
“…It was mostly relief and excitement.The burden of paying for school, that is gone. It was a huge relief and a burden off of my mom.”
Bielema let Ramsey know about it after a practice and in front of the entire team.
“They just told me after practice during a regular team meeting in fall camp,” Ramsey said. “Coach B called the whole team in and he told me that I was awarded my scholarship back. Everybody was like ‘ohhhh, he’s back.’”
He likes the move to defensive end, one of three positions he played along with safety and linebacker at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“The transition has been easy for me because I just try to play every down hard,” Ramsey said. “I don’t have to think about much - all I have to do is go after the ball as hard as a I can and try to hit the quarterback before the ball is thrown.”
He will also likely play some strong side linebacker this season.
“Yes, probably down the road when we play against LSU and Auburn, then they will probably play me at Sam because they like to run the ball,” Ramsey said.
Arkansas believes it will have a better pass rush this season with defensive ends Deatrich Wise, Tevin Beanum, JaMichael Winston, Karl Roesler and Ramsey, defensive tackles McTelvin “Sosa” Agim and Bijhon Jackson and nose guards Taiwan Johnson and Austin Capps.
“That has been reiterated,” Ramsey said. “Deatrich is a beast off the edge, Led is a beast in the middle and Tevin, he is a beast as well,” Ramsey said.
Segrest is happy for the depth he has across the line.
“Right now we are fortunate that we have got some depth, we got some guys coming back and hopefully we can pick up where we left off with the guys last year,” Segrest said. “Hopefully we have got them in the right spot I feel like.
“We have some versatility now with moving Randy there, Sosa in the mix and even a guy like Capps collapsing the pocket and different things there. I feel like we will be able to get that job done.
“Obviously it is always a matter of timing with that ball coming out, but as long as we can affect the quarterback and show up when our opportunity shows, that is all we can do.”