Best Oklahoma football players: Modern-era Mount Rushmore

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more controversial player in the history of Oklahoma football than Brian Bosworth, or The Boz as he’s more commonly referred to. His loud antics and boisterous personality gained the ire of many, including an incident criticizing the NCAA led to Barry Switzer releasing him from the program in 1987. But even then, you’d also be hard-pressed to find a better defensive player than Bosworth.

Once you got past the haircuts and the personality of The Boz and how he played in the media, you saw a player who made an impact each time out but especially in the biggest games. He was a star certainly for the way he carried himself but that wouldn’t have mattered quite as much if he didn’t back it up on the gridiron, which he did.

Bosworth was not only critical to the Sooners winning the 1985 National Championship but he was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 1986, won the Butkus Award twice — which was a historical feat — and being a two-time unanimous All-American selection. For good measure, he also ranks seventh all-time at Oklahoma in total tackles despite playing just three seasons in Norman.

You don’t have to like The Boz, to be sure. His biography after he left Oklahoma shed light on a dark side of the program under Switzer and led to the legendary coach’s dismissal. And again, he was loud and borderline arrogant. But if we’re talking greatness, Bosworth more than displayed that when he put his helmet over a wild haircut and took the field.