Knox Proves That He’s in Charge : Rams: Georgia Frontiere asks her new coach to keep Jeff Fisher. But defensive coordinator is fired, changing team’s long-range plan.
Jeff Fisher, who came to the Rams one season ago with the immediate responsibility of rebuilding a ruined defense and with the unspoken understanding that he would be a featured part of the team’s long-range plan, crated up his belongings Friday and left Rams Park.
Fisher’s role as the team’s heir apparent, devised by the Ram front office, almost certainly vanished with him as new Coach Chuck Knox plotted his own course at breakneck pace.
In other developments Friday, Knox’s first day at Rams Park:
--Knox announced that, as expected, four members of his staff with the Seattle Seahawks are joining him with the Rams. No other Seattle assistants are coming, Knox said.
George Dyer, his defensive line coach, replaces Fisher as defensive coordinator, and secondary coach Rod Perry, running backs coach Chick Harris and special assignments coach Joe Vitt will assume the same jobs in Anaheim. All four were at Rams Park Friday.
Former Seattle offensive coordinator John Becker was also at Rams Park Friday and Knox said he might assume a non-coaching role with the Rams.
--Holdover special teams/tight ends coach Gil Haskell was retained by Knox, joining offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese, who was rehired Thursday.
--Holdover linebackers coach Ronnie Jones, offensive line coach Hudson Houck and strength and conditioning coach Garrett Giemont are all still being considered for those positions with Knox, who told them he would make decisions over the weekend.
The rest of the Rams’ 1991 staff--secondary coach Tom Bettis, defensive line coach John Teerlinck, receivers coach Jimmy Raye, assistant secondary coach Nolan Cromwell and running backs coach Clarence Shelmon--have been told they do not fit into Knox’s plans.
But the most far-ranging move was the decision to fire Fisher, who still has two years remaining on his $170,000 contract. The Rams must fulfill the contract if Fisher does not find another coaching job.
In a loosely based concept, team sources say, the Rams’ ideal and long-planned situation would have been to team Knox, their No. 1 short-range fixer and franchise-stabilizer, with Fisher, 33, the man they believed could take over in 1994 or whenever Knox, 59, chose to leave coaching.
But the team’s decision to give Knox total control over all football decisions overrode any future scheme, team sources said, and though Knox gave at least tacit approval of Fisher before he was hired, once hired, he had the right to make any move he wanted.
On Wednesday, team owner Georgia Frontiere specifically asked Knox to strongly consider keeping Fisher. Thursday, Ram executives John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt discussed Fisher’s status with Knox.
Fisher had a tense, 50-minute interview with Knox Wednesday night, but left it with the understanding that Knox had offered him the job to stay if Seattle defensive coordinator Tom Catlin remained in Seattle.
Thursday evening, even though he knew Catlin wasn’t coming to the Rams, Knox decided he wasn’t comfortable with the arrangement, telling associates he didn’t want a situation in which the defense and offense were separate entities led by separate, strong personalities.
“It was just a question of seeing how the pieces would fit,” Knox said Friday, “and it’s no reflection on (Fisher) at all. It’s just something where I felt that I had some coaches that had coached with me a long time, that I’ve known a long time. George Dyer has been with me 11 years.
“It’s not like I’m letting a guy go. It’s a question of my adding to what we have here.”
Knox did not dispute that he “basically” told Fisher he was his choice as coordinator in that Wednesday meeting, but emphasized that nothing was “etched in stone,” and he did give Fisher the permission to go elsewhere.
When asked how big a factor the Ram front office’s request that Fisher stay was to him, Knox was point-blank.
“Listen, that wasn’t a factor at all,” Knox said. “When I accepted the job, I had the understanding that I would be able to do what I wanted to do with the coaching staff.
“Why would I be at odds with the administration? I don’t think that way. I’m up front. You ask me, if I can tell you directly, I’ll tell you directly.”
Fisher said he understood the decision as something Knox felt he had to do.
“He’s an extremely loyal person, a good coach who has taken his staff basically wherever he’s gone,” Fisher said Friday after stopping in to talk briefly with Knox. “I expected that and I kind of in the back of my mind thought that would probably happen. That’s what he’s elected to do.
“He’s the head guy here, and he’s entitled to change his mind. He did. I can’t reverse what he’s decided upon. I would have liked to have had more of an opportunity to talk to him, but I didn’t. He made up his mind and went on.”
Fisher left the highly talented Philadelphia Eagles after the 1990 season to join his old college coach, John Robinson, with the Rams, only to watch the undermanned Ram defense rank 23rd overall in 1991 and the team lose its final 10 games.
Fisher said he has no strong leads for a job and would be going to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., next week to start looking.
“If I had to do it all over again, not knowing that this was ahead, the decision to leave Philadelphia was the right decision at the time,” Fisher said. “Now knowing what I know . . . well, I don’t think I have to answer that one.
“I think the thing that’s starting to hit me most is from the player standpoint, like it did when I left Philly. These guys, since last February until three weeks ago, did everything I asked them to do.
“They had plenty of opportunities during the last three or four games just to lay down and roll over and they didn’t. I’m proud of them.”
Did he think the perception of him as the Rams’ heir apparent perhaps helped Knox make the choice to fire him?
“I don’t think that affected anything,” Fisher said. “I think he genuinely wants to bring his people in.
“I came here to coach defense, I didn’t come here to take the head job. The only thing I’m disappointed with is I didn’t have a chance to finish what I started.”
Ram Coaching Staff Beginning to Take Shape
Three days into Chuck Knox’s second tenure as coach of the Rams, the assistant coaching picture has become clearer. He has hired four men who assisted him in Seattle and has retained so far, only two Ram assistants. Five still have to be named, including a quarterbacks coach. THEY’RE IN . . . THE NEW George Dyer, Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line Comes from Seahawks with Knox, for whom he has worked nine years, lately as defensive line coach. Dyer, 51, started NFL coaching career in 1982 with Buffalo Bills after assistant stints at Arizona State, Michigan State, Humboldt State and San Jose State. Played center and linebacker at UC Santa Barbara. Chick Harris, Offensive Backfield 11 seasons with Knox, nine at Seattle and two at Buffalo. Harris, 46, was Don James’ secondary coach from 1976-80 at Washington, during which time the Huskies won one of two Rose Bowl appearances. He was a football and track standout at Northern Arizona, where he is a member of school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Rod Perry, Defensive Backfield He played defensive back with the Rams (1975-82, All-Pro in 1978 and ‘80) after being drafted by Knox out of Colorado, where he was an All-Big Eight Conference choice. After his NFL career with the Browns, Perry, 38, was an assistant coach at Columbia and Fresno State before Knox hired him in 1989. Joe Vitt, Special Assignments Was with Seahawks for 10 seasons, the last nine as special assignments coach under Knox. Originally a conditioning and strength coach, Vitt, 37, added secondary duties in 1983, but has worked strictly with the safeties the past two seasons. Was a linebacker for three years at Towson State (Md.). THEY’RE IN . . . THE OLD Ernie Zampese, Offensive Coordinator 1992 will be sixth season in charge of Rams’ offense for Zampese, 55. The USC grad--he was starting tailback in 1955-56--has tutored two highly productive quarterbacks (Jim Everett: 12,263 passing yards for 1988-91 seasons; Chargers’ Dan Fouts: the NFL’s top-ranked quarterback for 1983-86 seasons). Gil Haskell, Tight Ends/Special Teams Assisted John Robinson 16 years, seven with USC and last nine with Rams. Special teams under Haskell, 48, ranked among the NFL’s best. Before joining Robinson at USC, he was head coach at St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco for five years. THEY’RE OUT . . . Jeff Fisher, Defensive Coordinator Thought of as the Rams’ head coach of the future when he came from the Eagles to become the team’s defensive coordinator, Fisher, 32, was fired by Knox Thursday. Rams finished 23rd in defense in 1991, 12th against the rush and 25th against the pass. They yielded an average of 325.3 yards per game. Tom Bettis, Secondary Marv Goux, Defensive Line Jimmy Raye, Wide Receivers/Passing Game Clarence Shelmon, Running Backs John Teerlinck, Defensive Line IN DOUBT . . . Hudson Houck, Offensive Line Ronnie Jones, Linebackers Garrett Giemont, Strength and Conditioning