He Knows About Hard Knocks : Rams: Marcus Dupree says the time has come for him to give back as many as he received.

Marcus Dupree did not wait six years so he could be subtle while carrying the football.

He remembers when he used to be able to run over people, run around them, run under them, run wherever and however he wanted. But that was years ago, when Dupree was another kind of back.

When he was 18 and at the top of his game, he was the top of the game, maybe the best high school running back ever.

When he was a myth-in-the-making at the University of Oklahoma, he was a dasher more than a punisher. He used to veer outside on sprints rather than plow through the inside lanes.

He was a living legend, not a flesh-and-bones workhorse.

But his devastating 1985 knee injury, his five years away from football and his long wait to assume the Rams’ ball-carrying burden have made Dupree a hungrier running back. And a fiercer running back.

Now, when he gets his chances to carry the ball, he doesn’t dance. He bulldozes.

This week, with starting tailback Robert Delpino nursing a sore hip and the Rams determined to run the football hard and strong, Dupree’s knack for hard knocking almost certainly will thrust him into the spotlight at last.

Just last Sunday, on his first NFL pass reception, Dupree delivered a stunning shot to Kansas City linebacker Tracy Simien, bouncing him to the ground even as Simien was assuming Dupree would try to run away from his tackle.

“I like to get that first hit over with,” Dupree said. “I’m just trying to get there, establish that whenever you hit Marcus Dupree, you’re going to have to bring it. I just want to establish myself as a person who will hurt you.”

That is a lesson he learned from his mentor, a decent running back named Walter Payton. His teammates called him “Sweetness,” but Payton seemed to enjoy handing out more than his fair share of pain.

For Dupree, whose speed was dampened when his knee was surgically reconstructed, power is now his livelihood.

“Walter does the same thing,” Dupree said. “You go back and watch his films, you see him in the first half, when he first gets into the game, he wears people out. Then in the fourth quarter, he just runs by people.

“Hopefully, I can get to that type of mode where I don’t have to bang my body as much. But you’ve got to try to wear people down, then run by them.”

In his brief NFL career, Dupree hasn’t yet had the chance to go after a defense play after play. He carried the ball 19 times last year and, because of a serious toe injury that sidelined him for the first seven weeks and may require surgery in the off-season, only 33 times this year.

But this Sunday, against the Detroit Lions, a team that surrendered 139 yards to Tampa Bay running back Reggie Cobb, Dupree figures on 240 pounds of instant impact all game long.

And it just so happens that the Rams have been searching for a power-running game all season. Delpino has been a revelation, an all-around star, but the Rams concede that he isn’t the prototype masher back around which Coach John Robinson customarily builds his rushing attack. Dupree is.

“Last Sunday (against the Chiefs), we could’ve run the ball a lot more,” said Dupree, who rushed five times for 24 yards. “And Coach Robinson wants to get back to the run now.

“So it’s my time to shine. And I’m going to do whatever I have to do.”

Why do the Rams want to run with power? In their three victories this season, they have averaged 32 rushes. In their seven defeats, they have averaged 21.4.

Those statistics simplify the situation--if you’re behind, you naturally are going to run less--but Robinson says his offense is long overdue to get back to straight-ahead football.

Despite his long, aggravating wait, the 27-year-old Dupree believes his career might have actually worked out for the best.

He jumped from Oklahoma to Southern Mississippi before his sophomore season, which he skipped, went to the USFL in 1984, then blew out his left knee in a game in 1985. It was assumed then that he would never return to football, which loomed as perhaps the greatest waste of talent in the sport’s recent history.

“I’m old, yet I’m young,” is his way of describing his status.

“I wasn’t real prepared for it last year. I’ve gotten into some games now, and I feel comfortable when I’m in the game. There’s no problem.

“Everything happens for a reason. I just had to wait. I knew eventually something would happen. I guess I’d keep my life the same way. It hasn’t been a bad experience, really.”