Terrell is eager to play next to Pace
Recent draft pick is nicknamed 'Big C'
BY STEVE KORTE
News-Democrat
ST. LOUIS - St. Louis Rams rookie guard Claude Terrell has been known as the "Big C" since he was a youngster.
Terrell even has the nickname tattooed onto his right bicep.
"I was always bigger than all the other kids," Terrell said. "They have been calling me 'Big C' since elementary school."
Terrell was so big that he was kicked out of youth football program in LaMarque, Texas, for being over the weight limit.
"I only got to play two years of little league football because the weight limit was 130 and I was like 150 or so," Terrell said. "I didn't get to play organized football after I was 9 until like the seventh grade. I took like three or four years off."
Terrell's sheer size made him dangerous to the other players. "I guess they didn't want me to fall on anybody," Terrell said.
That's when Terrell switched sports, concentrating on basketball instead of football.
"I couldn't make weight, so I had to work on my hoop dreams," Terrell said. "Basketball was my first love until I started growing horizontally instead of vertically. I have a football body and not a basketball body."
Terrell played small forward on the LaMarque High School basketball team.
Asked if he could dunk the ball, the 6-foot-2 Terrell said, "I used to be able to dunk back in the day. I'm too heavy now. Gravity brings me down too quick."
Terrell now weighs 343 pounds, making him the heaviest guy on the Rams' roster.
The Rams, seeing Terrell's potential as a drive blocker, took the New Mexico senior in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL draft last weekend.
"He's just a big wide-body, a real stout guy," Rams offensive line coach John Benton said. "He's a real powerful drive blocker. He pulls well."
Rams offensive line coach John Matsko said Rams running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery discovered Terrell during a campus workout.
"Wilbert Montgomery went out there for a workout and he really fell in love with this kid," Matsko said. "He came back and championed him real well. Then John and I really did a lot of research on him, and our scouts were real high on him as well."
Terrell took part in his first practices with the Rams on Friday during the team's rookie minicamp.
Terrell said his first glimpse of the Rams' complex offense was a real eye-opener.
"I think we have a total of 35 protections, and we've only learned seven so far," Terrell said. "We still have 28 to go in two days."
Terrell said he had only five protections to learn at New Mexico.
"I am already way past what we had at New Mexico," Terrell said. "As soon as I got off the plane, I went into a meeting. It's been full speed ahead since I got here. We've been getting a crash course in the offense. I hear the Rams have a playbook as big as anybody in the NFL."
The Big C has been assigned a locker right next to the man sometimes called, "Big O," Rams Pro Bowl left tackle
Orlando Pace.
"That's going to be cool," Terrell said of having Pace as a locker room neighbor. "When I was growing up and he was at Ohio State, I wanted to be like
Orlando Pace.
"Now I'm sitting next him, and they have me penciled in at left guard, so if I crack the lineup, I'll be blocking next to him."
Terrell played guard his first three seasons at New Mexico, but moved to left tackle as a senior. He said the move enabled him to hone his pass blocking skills as he helped the Lobos offense generate 3,576 yards.
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