Williams Is an H-Factor for Chargers
Every day that H-back Rod Bernstine’s tender knee keeps him from practicing is one more opportunity for Ronnie Williams to show the Chargers he can run, block, catch and avoid the mistakes that, until late last year, kept Bernstine from becoming the player the Chargers thought they had drafted in the first round two years ago.
“Rod is going to have to come to grips with the fact that he may not be the Rod he wants to be before he gets back on the field,” says Ed White, the Chargers’ coach for tight ends and H-backs.
Bernstine injured the knee in Week 14 at Cincinnati, a 27-10 Charger loss. He had caught 14 passes the previous three games, including receptions of 57 and 59 yards.
But he remains on the “physically unable to perform list” and Coach Dan Henning isn’t sure when he will return. Maybe next week, the Chargers say. Maybe not.
“Overcoming something like that (the injury) is tough,” White says. “But when the trainers say it’s going to be time, it’s going to be time.”
Meanwhile, if he has to, Williams will even show the Chargers he can still throw the ball if it means it will help him make the team.
Three years ago, Williams was a 225-pound junior quarterback in a slump. Oklahoma State Coach Pat Jones replaced him with freshman Mike Gundy. It was the right move. Gundy matured into the guy who engineered Oklahoma State’s whopping, 62-14 victory over Wyoming in the Holiday Bowl last December.
But at the time, it was a bitter pill for Williams to swallow. Bitter, but not poison. “You’ve just got to go with the flow,” Williams said. “Whatever was best for the team was all right with me. So I just went with the flow.”
“He was a man about it,” says Steve Buzzard, Oklahoma State sports information director. “It was remarkable the way Ronnie handled this crisis. He was first class all the way.”
Going with the flow meant Williams would be Gundy’s backup while also learning the plays at wide receiver. By his senior year, he had become proficient enough at his new position to catch 26 passes and make all-Big Eight honorable mention.
But going with the flow also meant pro scouts weren’t sure whether Williams was fish or fowl. Some talked to him as a quarterback. Others projected him at H-back.
On draft day, the flow stopped. Nobody selected him.
But the next day, the phone was ringing. Williams was arguably the most versatile undrafted player, and nine teams wanted to sign him as a free agent.
“If everybody was so interested in me,” Williams asked himself, “why didn’t anybody pick me in the first 12 rounds?”
The snub gave Williams a chance to select the team of his choice. He opted for the Chargers, he says, because they ran an offense similar to Oklahoma State’s.
The Chargers liked his athletic ability from the beginning (he’s the best basketball player on the team). But it was clear he needed a crash course in the intricacies of H-back--running routes, blocking defensive linemen and being in motion on almost every play.
So when Williams pulled a groin muscle in a preseason scrimmage against the Cowboys at Thousand Oaks last summer, the Chargers had the opportunity they wanted to stash him on injured reserve while he practiced and learned his new position.
When Bernstine went down with the knee injury, and Williams bulked up to 243 pounds in the off-season, Williams was suddenly a leading candidate to start.
The others are 270-pound Joe Caravello, a two-time NFL arm wrestling champion who played for Henning in Washington. There is also undrafted rookie Craig Davis. And there is Bernstine.
Right now, Williams is the fastest, shiftiest and most sure-handed of the Chargers’ healthy H-backs. He is also a player who once figured to be drafted as an NFL quarterback. The longer rookie Billy Joe Tolliver remains unsigned, the more Henning thinks about using Williams, at least in drills, to ease the throwing burden on Mark Malone and David Archer, the Chargers’ only two active quarterbacks.
He is no longer just another Williams on the Charger roster (the other three are Lee, Dokie and Larry). He is improving daily.
“Ronnie is exceptionally strong for his size,” White says.
And he has this knack for spotting things before others do. When Gundy needed relief during Oklahoma State’s 29-10 loss at Oklahoma three years ago, Jones briefly replaced him with Williams. Williams had been running at second string in practice with a smallish, untested back that nobody outside of Stillwater and Wichita, Kan., had heard of.
“Let me take Barry in with me,” he begged Jones. Jones said that would be all right.
Williams liked what he had seen of this back in practice. And two years later, the rest of the football world agreed when Barry Sanders won the Heisman Trophy.
Charger Notes
The Chargers signed two more veterans Friday, the day all the veterans were scheduled to report. They are: running back Tim Spencer and defensive end Tyrone Keys. But the best news for them came from Texas, where Vic Vines, agent for unsigned rookie quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver, said he was encouraged by renewed contract negotiations. “We’re back on track,” Vines said. “We’re talking. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Earlier in the week, Vines claimed the Chargers took an offer to Tolliver off the bargaining table. The Chargers insist their offer has been the same all along. . . . Charger Coach Dan Henning on Tolliver’s continued absence: “It’s not the fact that he has dug himself a hole. What he hasn’t done is build himself a stand. He’s at ground level until he gets in here.”
The number of unsigned veterans is down to five: running back Gary Anderson, running back Lionel James, linebacker Gary Plummer, defensive lineman Joe Phillips and defensive lineman Les Miller. Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers’ director of football operations, said agreements were within reach in all cases but that of Anderson, the team’s MVP last year. The only other unsigned rookie is No. 1 draft pick Burt Grossman, a defensive end from Pitt. . . . Punter Ralf Mojsiejenko, who stayed away from the mini-camp and was fined, showed up for Friday’s team meeting. But he says he’s still waiting for the Chargers to make good on a promise, allegedly made in December of 1987, that they would renegotiate his current contract, which expires after this season. Ortmayer declined comment. . . . Veteran offensive lineman Broderick Thompson missed the team meeting Friday evening but was expected to report Saturday. According to Dallas sources, talks between the Cowboys and Chargers over unsigned Dallas quarterback Steve Pelluer have progressed to the point to where Dallas has informed the Chargers of a specific player they want in exchange. The source wouldn’t name the player. But it is believed the Cowboys are looking for a linebacker, a defensive tackle or a speed wide receiver. But “those are bad, bad sources,” Ortmayer said. “Nobody’s ever mentioned any names to me.” . . . The NFL will administer drug testing to all the Chargers Sunday. The Chargers won’t know the results of the tests until before Aug. 29, the date they have to cut their roster to 60 players. All NFL teams will be informed of every player testing positive for steroids . . . Henning praised veteran defensive end Karl Wilson. He said the key to getting the most out of Wilson lies in deploying him properly. “His strength is coming off the football,” Henning said. Henning also took the opportunity to praise rookie running back Marion Butts once again. Butts weighs 250 pounds. “As (Giant Coach) Bill Parcells would say: “He’s built for the game.” . . . Unlike Houston Coach Jerry Glanville, who says tough teams come from tough training camps located in tough surroundings, Charger owner Alex Spanos is delighted at the Chargers practice site in scenic La Jolla. “I haven’t been to any other training camps,” Spanos said. “But I can’t imagine any camp being more beautiful than this.” The terrace on which the players eat their training table meals has an ocean view. . . . Henning gave the rookies and free agents the afternoon off from practice. The normal practice schedule resumes today with one workout at 9 a.m. and another at 4 p.m. . . . The only injuries during the week just completed were a shoulder separation suffered by wide receiver Clint Sampson and leg pulls to running back Napoleon McCallum and offensive lineman Stacy Searels.