The password in Kentucky is …

Sporting News, The, Sept 2, 1996 by Steve Harrison

"Howard Schnellenberger came here, sat on that couch and said he wasn't going anywhere," remembers Pam Redman, Chris, mom.

The next week, Schnellenberger left for Oklahoma.

In February, Redman was charmed by Illinois. He signed his letter-of-intent because. he liked the Illini quarterback coach, Greg Landry, formerly of the Detroit Lions.

The next day, Landry was fired.

Stunned, the Redmans tried to get Chris released. In an almost unprecedented move, the NCAA allowed Redman to transfer with no penalty. Redman next pinned his hopes on the Sooners and Schnellenberger, but when he stepped off the plane in Oklahoma, his stomach was in knots. Norman was too far from home.

The Redmans came home, met with Cooper and signed with the Cardinals in July. Last season, senior Marty Lowe was No. 1 and Payne was the entrenched backup, so Redman was redshirted. Not only was it tough practicing with no real chance to start, but Redman idled while another quarterback, another player of the year just four hours away, charmed the country.

"That was hard for him to sit on the sideline," Pam Redman says. It went from people and reporters calling every day, to two seconds later there was nothing."

"For two years in a row they went against each other, and the papers are building them up," Louisville quarterbacks coach Don Kirkpatrick says. We hear there is a great kid at Male, and maybe a better player at Leslie. And now, if Couch does better, they will say Couch is the man. He understands that and tries not to get caught up in the hype."

As the minute hand creeps toward 9 p.m., Ray Dorr, Kentucky's excitable quarterbacks coach, draws formations on his dry-erase board with a black marker. Couch, Haskins and freshman Ryan Keller, the third-stringer, are sitting in his office, hostage. Dorr, who coached Warren Moon at Washington and Todd Marinovich at USC, moves a free safety on the board. Can we run this play?" Dorr asks. What about this one?"

Each quarterback has a three-inch thick playbook. There is a dizzying list of formations and plays and defenses they must learn. There are a few moments of levity - Dorr teases Couch about being homesick, and Haskins says Couch just wants some squirrel - but there is so little time, so much to learn.

Redman went through this last year. You almost get a headache," he says. "It took me a full year to learn it. It's tough. It takes a special person. "You have to learn different terminology. You get nervous and say, There is no way I can get this.'"

Says Kirkpatrick, "It's somewhat overwhelming. Now they are thinking so much, they aren't throwing so well. There is always a period when they struggle and struggle."

Redman is in the better position at Louisville. He has a better supporting cast, and his redshirt year has allowed him to ease into the shadows. Not only did the Wildcats lose star running back Moe Williams to the NFL, Curry threw two returning offensive starters and a third-string running back off the team in early August. And there is the ridiculous pressure on Couch, who has been built up to Gulliver-like size. There is a joke that Wildcat fans are waiting for Haskins, first interception - maybe even incompletion - to usher Couch off the bench.