Pastel Blue Causes Bosworth to See Red : Oklahoma’s ‘Rainbow Warrior’ Says He Doesn’t Think Much of Bruins’ Color Scheme

‘Last year, we opened the season with a semi-dormat (Minnesota). This year, we opened with a legitimate doormat.’

--BRIAN BOSWORTH, Oklahoma linebacker

Brian Bosworth didn’t say flat-out that wearing pastel blue took the fight out of a man but he had to admit, for a working theory, it wasn’t bad.

“I know I wouldn’t wear pastel blue,” the Oklahoma linebacker said. “I’d transfer.”

There were other theories available to explain Oklahoma’s 38-3 razing of UCLA, most prominently the one offered by Sooner Coach Barry Switzer. He said UCLA was simply outmanned on the line. “They were just too light for us,” he said, almost apologetically.

In fact, the Sooners’ starting front five, who ranged in weight from 265 to 290 pounds, enjoyed sizable weight advantages in each matchup along the line.

“And then,” Switzer said, “we send a 225-pound fullback through.” The way he said it, it was as if he felt bad doing it, compounding the Bruins’ sorry situation. But a Sooner’s gotta do what a Sooner’s gotta do.

Which is about all you can say to explain Bosworth, the All-American linebacker who was leveling the Bruins off the field--”girls’ football,” he called their finesse offense--with as much gusto as he did on the field. Because he is, after all, a curiously contradictory character.

Here is a guy who, even as he is musing about the hormonal effects of a powder-blue uniform, is sporting a patch of hair that has four stripes of color. And he doesn’t like powder blue?

Of course, he’s always had trouble with opposing-team colors--he once said Texas’ burnt orange reminded him of people’s vomit. But who is he to talk? Bosworth plays it pretty fast and loose with the color spectrum himself.

“This is the Rainbow Warrior cut,” he was explaining, detailing the evolution of college football’s most famous, and worst, haircut. “I’ll probably have to do something different next week,” he said, lamenting the pressures brought to bear on a junior athlete.

Only Bosworth could afford such reckless flamboyance. With a team-high nine tackles, including two for losses, and a leadership role in a defense that held the Bruins to just 34 yards rushing, he presumably has the right to say or wear anything he wants.

His flamboyance off the field does him a disservice only to the extent that it tends to overshadow what he does on the field. Keep in mind that UCLA returned one of the nation’s top offenses, and that their only score came after a UCLA interception.

Twice in the first half, as UCLA desperately tried to establish its ground game, Bosworth stuffed tailback Gaston Green for losses, forcing the Bruins to punt. Observed UCLA Coach Terry Donahue: “They totally throttled our offensive team.”

They did it in ways he couldn’t have imagined, too. Bosworth and his colleagues, who return almost intact the country’s No. 1 defense from last season’s national championship team, like to rule by intimidation. So it was, to hear the various aggrieved parties talk, that Bosworth and buddies sprayed enough saliva in pile-ups to turn the game into water polo.

“We did a little backtalking during the game,” was as much as Bosworth would admit. But, he was advised, some Bruins had accused him of Great Expectorations. “Me?” Bosworth said, suddenly hurt to the core of his being.

UCLA quarterback Matt Stevens said, yes, him.

Meanwhile, to be fair, some Sooners were complaining about Bruins spitting. Quarterback Jamelle Holieway, another bad haircut if ever there was one (he had the number 4 carved into his hair) complained that fellow Los Angeleno Frank Batchkoff spit in his face. “I’m gonna get him when I get home, too,” Holieway promised.

Fullback Lydell Carr said Bruins singled him out as well. “But that,” Carr said, “is not to their advantage.”

And Sooner Greg Johnson complained that all the Bruins “wanted to do was push and try to start a fight. They called my mom names.” It must have gotten pretty bad out on the field.

Whatever Bosworth will admit to, he did play a rugged brand of football. Stevens complained to the referee about Bosworth digging a knee into Green’s back. And Boz seemed to need help getting off the ground sometimes, so he often used a Bruin head for support.

But teammate Darrell Reed said Bosworth’s babbling turned the game around, in fact. “In the second quarter we started intimidating them, and their quarterback lost his confidence,” he said. “And then Bosworth started calling their linemen names, so I knew at the half it was our game.”

But what was he expected to do, Bosworth complained, the way the Bruins behaved. “They’d say nice play, good hit,” Bosworth reported, disgusted. “That’s not football. Why, once, Curtice Williams just drove somebody back. And he told Curtice, ‘That’s a nice play. That’ll look good on film tomorrow.’

“I don’t like that.”

You can believe any or all of this. But when Switzer was told of his linebacker’s special motivation, he only laughed and said, “He’s so full of bleep.”

And apologized Bosworth’s otherwise proud father, shaking his head, “He’s just a kid.”

There were other people with real points to prove, like Holieway, who has felt all along his offense has been slighted, especially for starting seasons slowly. The Sooners gained 470 yards rushing. Some slow start.

Also, there was the bet he made with UCLA’s Gaston Green when both were home earlier this summer. Loser take winner out to eat.

Which restaurant, Jamelle? He measured his syllables. “An ex-pen-sive restaurant.”

Surely this is a costly game for the Bruins, who must ponder their real ranking in the world of football.

Meanwhile the Sooners, who entered the season on a crest of high expectations, are already re-evaluating their potential. Switzer was careful not to read too much into so lopsided a win, explaining the Sooners will be facing more physical teams in the future, such as Texas and Nebraska. “We won’t get mismatches like this again,” he said. “There’ll be some ties.”

His players were not so humble. “The only team that can beat Oklahoma,” Holieway said, “is Oklahoma.”