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It’s back-to-school day as Rams rookies report for training camp at UC Irvine

Rams rookies arrive at UC Irvine for training camp on Tuesday.
Rams rookies arrive at UC Irvine for training camp on Tuesday.
(Gary Klein / Los Angeles Times)
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As they arrived at UC Irvine on Tuesday afternoon, Rams rookies could not help finding reminders of college.

They are pros now, preparing for their first NFL training camp, but the dorm-style apartments and campus buildings took them back to university experiences that ended several months ago.

“I thought I left college,” tight end Temarrick Hemingway, a sixth-round draft pick from South Carolina State, said while laughing, “but it seems like we’re right back at it.

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“So I guess I need my textbooks and should start studying for my chemistry test.”

Hemingway and other rookies said they mainly had been studying their playbooks in preparation for the start of camp, which includes rookie walk-throughs and practices in the days leading up to Saturday’s first full-squad public workout.

Quarterback Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick in the draft, was not made available to the media Tuesday. He arrived about 45 minutes before other rookies and was greeted by a crew from the “Hard Knocks” television show as he checked in, a team employee said.

The campus residential facilities do not include air-conditioned suites. Goff purchased fans for all of the offensive players and coaches, a team spokesman said, as the Rams hunker down for about six weeks of camp at a campus that last hosted the franchise in 1994.

Some veteran players were present but most are scheduled to arrive Thursday or Friday for a training camp that will feature 16 practices open to the public.

The Rams also will hold an open scrimmage Aug. 6 at the Coliseum.

UC Irvine does not field a football team but the campus’ Crawford Field has served as a training site for the Rams, USC and other college and pro teams.

The facility for this year’s training camp features two fields surrounded on three sides by bleachers capable of seating about 6,000 fans.

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The Rams have set up their locker room and training room facilities next to the campus aquatics complex, only a short walk from the practice fields.

Fans can park at a structure just beyond the right-field fence of the baseball stadium, and then walk to the practice fields. (Parking fees and information: https://www.parking.uci.edu/rams/parkingpasses.cfm).

Receiver Pharoh Cooper and tight end Tyler Higbee said they were among a group of players who had been training the last few weeks with Goff and veteran quarterback Case Keenum in Westlake Village, where Nelson Spruce, an undrafted receiver from Colorado, played in high school.

Cooper, a fourth-round pick from South Carolina, impressed coaches and teammates during organized team activities in June.

Asked to rate his anxiety level heading into training camp, he chuckled and said “10 out of 10.”

But Cooper sounded as if he were ready to pick up where he left off.

“This is the real deal right here,” he said, adding, “OTAs, you kind of go in there nervous, coming right out of college, trying not to mess up.

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“Now it’s training camp. The confidence level is high, you know the playbook. You know you can start running full speed, get the pads on and start being physical with it.”

Notes

A limited number of single-game tickets for Rams home games at the Coliseum will go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster, the team announced. The Rams have said they sold 70,000 season tickets. They play exhibition games at home against the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs. Their regular-season home games are against the Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Miami Dolphins, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals. They are the home team for an Oct. 23 game against the New York Giants in London.

gary.klein@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesklein

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