Rams, Second-Term Coach Knox About to Re-Enter Hard-Hat Zone : Football: Rebuilding process continues Wednesday when players report to advance camp.
Chuck Knox calls it “advance camp,” making the Rams’ first official full-contact get-together in his second regime as their head coach sound almost like military reconnaissance. Seek and employ.
On Wednesday evening, rookies, inexperienced players and veterans coming back from injuries are scheduled to report to UC Irvine to begin daily work toward the Rams’ 1992 season.
The Rams on Monday agreed to terms with 12 of their draft choices, leaving only second-round pick Steve Israel and fourth-round pick Shawn Harper unsigned heading into the advance camp.
On draft day, the Rams signed their No. 1 pick, defensive tackle Sean Gilbert.
The rest of the team is scheduled to report to regular training camp next Tuesday.
For Knox and his new staff, the first week of drills and one early scrimmage with the San Diego Chargers are about getting to know the players, becoming familiar with the atmosphere and figuring out where this 3-13 team of a year ago should be headed.
The new players in advance camp figure to play key roles for the Rams, who lost their last 10 games of 1991.
Among those who will be most closely watched in the coming days: No. 1 draft pick Sean Gilbert; fellow 1992 draft-class mates Israel, Marc Boutte and Todd Kinchen, and promising second-year players such as fullback Ernie Thompson and linebacker Roman Phifer, who missed the end of last season with a broken leg.
“No. 1, we want to find out about the new players,” Knox said of advance camp. “We want to see what type of condition the veteran players who are coming back are in, see how they’ve recuperated from any off-season surgeries or injuries they received last year.
“It’ll also be good for the coaching staff to go to a new training site and get the lay of the land, so to speak, so we can have an idea of where everybody’s supposed to go, where we’re supposed to be, get any little snags ironed out at training camp so when we go to the regular camp we should have a lot of the little things taken care of.”
When the veterans arrive, the heavy duty work begins.
During the team’s May minicamp, Knox said he wanted to set a pace for the team, make it feel the taste of discipline and teamwork he is known to instill.
He doesn’t deny that he is feeling antsy heading into Wednesday.
“Yeah, this is what it’s all about,” Knox said. “I think everybody’s got to be excited about training camp. Teach them, coach them, try and build it day by day.
“We’ve got to get fundamentally sound in training camp, where we can execute the basics that you have to have if you’re going to have a chance to win.”
Ram Notes
Coach Chuck Knox said that though Jim Everett was willing to attend all of advance camp, he asked the quarterback to delay his arrival until Sunday to give backup Mike Pagel and rookies T.J. Rubley and Matt Veatch more opportunities to throw early. . . . The attorney for second-round pick Steve Israel said Monday that although the two sides hadn’t begun serious negotiations, he foresaw no major snags in the talks. “I figure we’ll talk probably in the next couple of days,” Gary Uberstine said. “I’ve had some very cordial talks with them, and hopefully we can get this deal done in the near future.” Uberstine said he would expect Israel, the 30th pick overall, to get “some kind of bump” up from the three-year, $1.5-million deal the Rams gave 1991 second-round choice Roman Phifer, the 31st overall selection that year . . . Agreeing to terms Monday were wide receiver Todd Kinchen (Louisiana State), defensive tackle Marc Boutte (LSU), safety Chris Crooms (Texas A & M), running back Joe Campbell (Middle Tennessee State), tackle Darryl Ashmore (Northwestern); safety Rickey Jones (Alabama State), quarterback T.J. Rubley (Tulsa), running back Tim Lester (Eastern Kentucky), linebacker Brian Townsend (Michigan), wide receiver Brian Thomas (Southern) and center Kelvin Harris (Miami.)