Linehan goes back for the future
ST. LOUIS – To be a successful special-teams coach, “I don’t want to say you’ve got half a screw loose,” Rams head coach Scott Linehan said, “but …”
Apprised of that assessment, Al Roberts chuckled and said, “He’s probably right.”
Roberts is the newest addition to Linehan’s coaching staff. He’s also the oldest, at 63. You wouldn’t know it, though, by watching him bound about the practice fields exhorting his troops at Rams Park. Hired in January, Roberts is the Rams’ fifth special-teams coach in seven years. He succeeded Bob Ligashesky, who was preceded by Mike Stock, Bobby April and Larry Pasquale.
The steady turnover is a stark indictor of how the team has struggled steadily in an area that arguably is the most under-appreciated in football. Not by Linehan, however. He puts his special-teams coach on equal footing with his offensive and defensive coordinators.
Linehan also is willing to assign his best players to special teams and carves out plenty of time for the unit in his practice schedules.
Roberts said Linehan has “a vision of what he wants his team to look like, offense, defense and special teams. And he’s instilled that vision and that want-to in the guys.”
Kicker Jeff Wilkins and punter Matt Turk put together solid seasons last year, but the Rams again lagged badly in other areas. Among the NFL’s 32 teams, they were 26th in kickoff returns, tied for 25th in punt returns, 28th in kickoff coverage and 19th in punt coverage.
Since 2000, opponents have scored 20 special-teams touchdowns to six for the Rams. Linehan dismissed Ligashesky after two seasons and turned to Roberts for a simple reason:
“He’s the best special-teams coach I’ve ever been around,” said Linehan, who worked with Roberts on the University of Washington staff in 1996. “It was his approach, the way he teaches, the way he gets his point across. He’s a very confident person, very well-respected by the players.”
St. Louis is Roberts’ fifth NFL stop, following Cincinnati (1998-2002), Arizona (1994-95), the New York Jets (1991-93), Philadelphia (1988-90), and the Houston Oilers (1984-85). The Fresno, Calif., native also coached at Purdue and in the old USFL.
When Linehan tracked him down, Roberts was co-head coach at Garfield High in Seattle. “It’s an inner-city school that has lost its bite, has lost its tag,” Roberts said. “The kids are moving out to other areas. You coach what’s left, and it was hard.”
His first priority was re-establishing discipline. “The kids did not believe that if you don’t go to class and you don’t go to practice, you’re not going to play. And I left them at home,” he said. “Consequently, we were 1-8 one year and 0-9 the next year. But I wasn’t doing it for that; I was doing it because we all have to put a hand in and help the kids.”
Roberts’ commitment was so strong that he turned down Linehan’s overture a year ago. “I’d just promised a bunch of kids that really wanted to turn a page in their life that I was going to stay with them,” Roberts said. “And so I stayed.”