Rams add 2 coaches, 5 players

ST. LOUIS -- The Rams hired two new coaches and added five players to their roster, the team said Tuesday.

Seven-year NFL veteran Frank Falks will coach tight ends. And former North Dakota State coach Bob Babich will be a defensive assistant.

Falks most recently coached for four seasons (1997 to 2000) with the Detroit Lions, where he coached running backs. Prior to that, he spent three years as tight ends/H-backs coach for the San Diego Chargers.

Falks also coached for 25 years at the college level. He was assistant head coach at Southern California in 1985 and 1986.

Falks is a native of Tampa, Fla., and was an All-American linebacker at Joplin Junior College in 1964. He was elected to the southwest Missouri town's hall of fame in 1973.

Babich, 41, was coach at North Dakota for six seasons, going 46-22. Before that, he was an assistant at five different NCAA Division I schools over 12 seasons.

Babich is a native of Aliquippa, Pa. He was a junior college All-American in 1979 at Mesa Community College in Arizona.

The Rams also re-signed quarterback Scott Covington and added five free agents to their off-season 80-man roster.

Covington had been scheduled to be a restricted free agent. He spent 11 weeks on the Rams' roster in 2002 and was an emergency starter in the season finale against San Francisco, completing two of five passes for seven yards before being pulled. He spent parts of the previous three seasons with Cincinnati.

Free-agent additions were wide receiver Kenyon Hambrick, defensive end Bary Holleyman, punter Rhett Kopp, safety Robbie Robinson and defensive tackle Jeremy Staat.

Of the five free-agents, Staat is the only one to have appeared in a regular-season NFL game. He was the second-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1998 and has also played for the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks. In 29 career games, he has 23 tackles.