COLLEGE FOOTBALL / WEEK 2 : NOTES : Borges Says It Would Have Been Big for Pokey

Al Borges, the well-regarded UCLA offensive coordinator, was confident he would be focused on the game once he got to the Rose Bowl, and especially once he came on the field.

The days leading up to the game against Boise State were another matter.

Borges coached at Portland State and Boise State under Pokey Allen, who was as fun-loving and outrageous in a promotional sense as he was successful: very. Allen died of cancer on Dec. 30, 1996, leaving his former assistant coaches and friends to hit the bars in his hometown of Missoula, Mont., in his honor the night before the funeral and recall the stories.

Those same memories--how Allen let fans en masse call one play every home game at Portland State, how he had a whiny voice that people love to imitate, how he refused to let football become drudgery--couldn’t help but come back this week, with Boise State playing UCLA.

“Oh, no question,” Borges said in the days leading up to the season opener. “Just seeing those [Boise State] uniforms. I know as soon as they come out there, it’ll bring back some memories right off the top.

“I’ll tell you what it’ll really bring out. To me, it’ll bring out the fact that they are playing UCLA and I’ll know how I would have felt if I was there, because they scheduled the game when I was there. I know how I would have felt and Pokey would have felt if it was us playing UCLA. It would have been a pretty fun experience to come down here to the Rose Bowl and play a football game. God, that would have fired him up. That’s the first thing that comes to mind.”

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When fullback Durell Price returns from suspension Sept. 18 against Fresno State, it will be with a new uniform number and a tribute.

He changed from 9 to 36 this season as a tribute to friend and former roommate Ramogi Huma, the linebacker who had hoped to play again after sitting out much of 1998 because of a hip injury. But Huma, who would have been a senior in eligibility while attending graduate school, was unable to make it back and became a medical redshirt.

“That’s one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever been around and I’ve been playing football for a long time, from Pop Warner through high school and now through to college,” Price said. “I know how much he cared and loved the game. For his season to be over, I wanted to let him know he wasn’t forgotten.”

Price said he went to Huma in the spring about the switch.

“He was touched by it,” Price said. “He thought it was a great idea. So I’m happy to be able to play our season.”

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Boise State officials, with the cooperation of UCLA, named the parents of Paul Reyna honorary co-captains for the game and had them come to midfield for the pregame coin toss. The Broncos have been honoring Reyna, the freshman defensive lineman from Bishop Amat High in La Puente who recently died of head injuries suffered in a scrimmage, in different ways, including wearing stickers with his number, 95, on their helmets all season. They came up with the idea for the coin toss, checked with UCLA to see if it was OK, and received complete support from the Bruins. . . . Walk-ons always have hope for a future at UCLA, where the starting quarterback, Drew Bennett, and the star receiver, Danny Farmer, came out without scholarships. Now Tyson Clayton, a freshman offensive lineman from Bakersfield, has made a favorable impression. “I see him playing someday,” Coach Bob Toledo said.