September 16, 2005 12:37 am
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Commentary
By Jeff Mullin
True bulletin-board material is pretty rare in the world of big-time college football.
After practice for Leviathan U.’s upcoming game with Woefully Underfunded A&M, the starting tailback, D.S. (Destined for Stardom) Jones will say something profound like, “Their record does not indicate how well they play. They don’t have a lot of size, but they have big hearts.” What he really means is, “These bums haven’t won a game since Bill and Monica were an item and likely won’t win again until Hillary lets Bubba out of the doghouse. They look more like jockeys than football players and we’ll hang half a hundred on them by halftime.”
Sadly, political correctness has taken over major college football.
Such was not the case, however, in Brian Bosworth’s day. The Boz, as he was known while he was terrorizing opposing defenses as a linebacker for the Oklahoma Sooners in the mid 1980s, was known to speak his mind.
During his days at Oklahoma, Bosworth had plenty to say about a lot of teams, but saved some of his best barbs for the UCLA Bruins.
His words were bulletin board material then, and have become so again, it seems.
With UCLA hosting the Sooners this weekend at the Rose Bowl, Bosworth’s quips about the Bruins, particularly the one making fun of the team’s powder blue jerseys, are being used to motivate the current UCLA players.
“I know I wouldn’t wear pastel blue,” Bosworth said before OU’s 1986 game with UCLA, “I’d transfer. I mean, that shade of blue might be all right for basketball, track or tennis, but not football.”
Bosworth won’t be wearing pastel blue Saturday afternoon, but he will be rooting for the Bruins, since his two nephews are freshmen linebackers for UCLA.
UCLA coach Karl Dorrell was a wide receiver for the 1986 Bruins, a team Bosworth and the Sooners beat 38-3 in Norman. He would do well to forget that long-ago day and concentrate on the fact the Sooners are coming to town with Adrian Peterson, facing a team that gave up 261 rushing yards to Oklahoma State’s Vernand Morency in a 31-20 home loss a year ago.
Morency is a good back, but Peterson’s in another class altogether.
Of course, if the Bruins figure out a way to bottle up Peterson and force Rhett Bomar to win the game with his arm, the Bruins’ shade of blue just might make the Sooners turn a little green and give Dorrell the last laugh, 19 years later.
Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle
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Jeff Mullin