Not Sitting Pretty : Former Bruin Wayne Cook a Disappointed Odd Man Out After 49ers’ Addition of Tested Quarterback

One day quarterback Wayne Cook is throwing passes for the San Francisco 49ers to Jerry Rice, perhaps the greatest receiver in pro football history; the next, Cook is scrounging to find anybody to throw to at Newbury Park High.

Such has been the summer of Cook’s discontent. Wayne’s world is whacked out. In April, on the final day of the NFL draft, the former Newbury Park quarterback who starred for two seasons at UCLA signed as a free agent with the 49ers. He could almost feel a Super Bowl ring on his finger.

Two months later, he wanted to wring someone’s neck. San Francisco last month signed veteran Cary Conklin, making him the fifth quarterback on the roster behind Super Bowl MVP Steve Young, Elvis Grbac, Bob Gagliano--the former Glendale College player--and Cook.

Only four were invited to training camp. Cook, who worked out in two mini-camps with San Francisco, got the call--the wrong kind--from team vice president Dwight Clark.

“Dwight called me and I didn’t like to hear [that I was cut], but he was really cool about it,” Cook said. “What looked to be a great situation became a bad situation when Conklin came in. It’s frustrating. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Clark confirmed that Cook was a victim of bad timing but remained impressed with his throwing ability after watching film of him passing to J.J. Stokes, Cook’s teammate at UCLA and the 49ers’ first-round draft choice.

“We got into a roster situation and the coaches felt more secure with a veteran player,” Clark said about Conklin. “It’s hard to say if Wayne has a future in the NFL because we didn’t see enough of him [in mini-camp] to know. But we watched a ton of film on J.J. Stokes and every time it was Wayne throwing incredibly accurate. I think Wayne’s a talented player.”

So does Cook, but with NFL training camps now open he is living at his parents’ home in Newbury Park, working out daily on his own. Each day for an hour he throws passes to any willing target.

He even enlists his father, a former Newbury Park coach. A lineman in his playing days, 54-year-old Ken Cook has yet to be mistaken for Jerry Rice.

“I threw passes to all the bigwigs,” Wayne Cook said about his experience at 49er mini-camp. “I was getting a couple reps with the actual guys and I thought I did good.”

Cook still thinks he will play in the NFL. His agent, Tom Olsen of Newport Beach, has contacted other franchises, but the timing couldn’t be worse. Teams are stocked with quarterbacks at the start of training camp.

“The timing is real bad . . . but we’re talking to teams,” Olsen said. “We fully expected Wayne to get invited to [49er] camp. Getting cut came as a real shock. But in the next couple weeks, teams will be making changes. We think there will be a real interest in Wayne.”

Cook, 24, is buoyed by that assessment and also by his own resilience. He was a lightly recruited quarterback after throwing for 1,200 yards in 1988 as a Newbury Park senior. He finally won the starting job at UCLA in ’92 only to suffer a season-ending knee injury in his first start.

But after two healthy seasons, Cook became one of the better quarterbacks in UCLA history. He completed 352 of 612 passes (57.3%) for 4,753 yards and led UCLA to the Rose Bowl game after the ’93 season. With 34 touchdown passes, he ranks behind only Tom Ramsey (50) and Troy Aikman (41) at the school.

In some ways, Cook likens his current status to his first days at UCLA.

“When I came out of high school I wasn’t highly recruited and I had to prove to people I could play at UCLA,” he said. “It’s the same type of thing now. I need to show people what I can do by playing.”

So, he remains patient, convinced his time will come--if not this summer at an NFL camp, then next spring in the World League of American Football.