[Upchurch]
News bullets and other important items
- Jourdan Lewis, Ben Braden, and Mo Hurst were Harbaugh’s decision to hold out. Lewis and Hurst should be back next week. De’Veon Smith got bruised and should also be back next week.
- Taco Charlton has an ankle injury and Bryan Mone needed an MRI Saturday night.
- When all is said and done, 17-20 freshmen should see the field this year.
- Harbaugh wasn’t worried about the first-play interception because his measure of a QB is how they respond on the following drive.
- Harbaugh said they’re just scratching the surface of what Chris Evans can do. Expect to see him catching the ball out of the backfield and lining up as a receiver soon.
- There’s still a competition for the backup QB spot (and probably every spot, really) because of course there is.
- Harbaugh effusively praised the defense (he said they didn’t make a stance or alignment mistake through three quarters) and the secondary in particular.
[Getting the mics passed out is taking a minute]
“I can just give you my first answer. The first thing that strikes me is—it hit me about Thursday [or] Friday [that] our coaches had worked this group of players as hard as you possibly can, and our players worked themselves as hard as they possibly could, and it just hit me Thursday [or] Friday that it’s time to just let them go show what they can do. I thought we’d be good, and it was. I thought our team played really well.”
Wilton talked about how your reassurance after that first play—what it meant to him. You’ve been through that a lot of times, that kind of thing. Talk about your approach there.
“Well, really my approach was I wanted to see what he did on the next series. It’s very difficult for a quarterback to throw an interception on a series and then come back and lead a touchdown drive the following series. It’s something I’ve always been fascinated in watching quarterbacks, and the really good ones can do that. They don’t think about, ‘I’m not gonna make another bad mistake.’ I mean, that’s what some do, but good ones don’t. I was just excited for that opportunity, to see what he was going to do on the next drive.
“And then to see him start the next drive on the two-yard line. I mean, that’s as much adversity as you can have for a quarterback starting a series, starting a drive: having thrown an interception on the previous drive—and the very first throw of the game—and then to find yourself on the two-yard line. But he responded in tremendous fashion to lead a touchdown drive, make big third-down conversion throws, to make as good a corner throw to Grant Perry as can be made. It can’t be thrown any better. The slant he threw coming off the goal line cannot be thrown any better.
“Had total command and I think it speaks volumes and bodes really well for our team and bodes really well for his career as a quarterback to have done that, to have come back off an interception and then very next drive go on a 98-yard touchdown drive. Now he knows he can do it, and now we’ll expect him to do it. So, it was good for our team. Good for his career.”
Mike McCray’s overcome a lot and we saw him all over the field today. Talk about what that meant and how good he was out there today.
“I feel like our inside backers are very athletic and can run and get to the sideline and still play very physical inside the box, take on blockers, take on guards, take on backs. I think it’s a step up in terms of athleticism when you look at Mike McCray and Ben Gedeon and Devin Bush.
“There’s a lot of guys, a lot of guys that have personally overcome a lot that were out there and did well today. Michael Hirsch is another. Several. Several guys.”
[After THE JUMP: Imagine how excited Harbaugh was when Michael Jordan coincidently delivered one of his favorite messages to the team]
The stats will probably show just how many freshmen played at the end, but you played freshmen early and often. Can you talk about your decision on adding freshmen onto the field so early?
“Sure. It’s been coming for weeks now. Really I’d say the last two to three weeks, last three weeks you could say—three weeks ago there were eight, seven or eight that earned it and knew that they were going to be tracking to be in the two-deep. Then it was less than a week later that it was probably up to 10. Then another week it was up again and up again and finally, I think I told Jim Brandstatter the other night, it’ll be 17-20 when it’s all said and done the way it’s going. They’ve earned it.
“And I knew Chris Evans was special. That…what you saw today was what we’ve been seeing in practice for the last month. He’s a special football player. And you didn’t really get to see everything that he can do, because he can catch the ball out of the backfield, he can line up as a receiver—you’ll see that at times in the near future, as a returner—both as a punt returner and kick returner. He’s a very special player.”
How do you see Chris Evans being used going forward? What do you expect out of him going forward?
“Special things. He’s a special player and I expect big things going forward. Just described some of the way he’ll be used. He’s really—[he] can do everything you want a back to do. He blocks, he runs the ball between the tackles, he can run it on the edge, he can catch the ball out of the backfield. He’s a very good contributor on special teams, as well. In a lot of ways, he’ll be used. He’s a special player.”
What ultimately separated Wilton in this quarterback race?
“It was not by a wide margin, really, but—because all the quarterbacks had been playing very well from the first day of camp. First day, then the first week, then the second week, all the way through. They were consistently good. Good in practice usually equals good in the games, and accurate in practice as a quarterback [equals] accurate in games. So it was good, by really all three of our quarterbacks. Wilton just a little bit, just a little better, and it was…it was convincing in that he was the best guy.
“And to see all of them do just what they’ve been doing in practice, which is running the football team, very focused, very accurate. I think Wilton had three incompletions and Shane and John had zero incompletions. All had touchdown drives and all operated the team very efficiently, very good, and made big throws on third down. I think we were 100% conversion on third down and 100% in the red zone. All very good things. All good quarterback play today.”
You talked about Speight’s early confidence being boosted on the drive. The defense is backed up by quick change and they stopped them. Talk about that and the overall effort of that side of the ball.
“Overall effort on that side of the ball was outstanding. You know, it was dominating there really at the beginning for sure and throughout the game. Don Brown has a great, great saying—I love it—which is ‘solve problems with aggression.’ Our team played that way today.”
Does it boost them up when you stop them after that interception?
“Definitely. It definitely does. The encouraging thing—I’ll say it again—our coaches worked our players as much as can possibly be done, and I thought it really showed out there, and it really showed in the mental part of the game. Watching our defense go through the first half and even into the third quarter where there wasn’t a mistake made—I mean, there wasn’t an alignment mistake made, a stance-alignment mistake in the first half or the first part of the third quarter. It was very impressive. Everybody knew exactly what they were doing. It really showed. It just showed. The meeting time and the practice time really showed in our guys.
“And then, again, the players are willing to do it. The ones that love football, they love doing it every day. It was something very interesting Michael Jordan said to the team Friday night. I think it resonated with everybody. He got good at basketball because he practiced. There’s such great carryover to football because you get good at football by playing football. And he said, ‘If you love it, then you want to do it every day. Then you want to do it as much as you can every day.’ He said, ‘It’s like eating ice cream. If you love ice cream, then you’re going to eat it every single day.’ That’s what resonates with me. That’s what our football team has been doing for the past month, and it was just good that they went out and showed that today.”
Reflect on Peppers today and that first snap today, right away seeing him close to the ball to fill that gap and what you’re looking for from him?
“Yeah, as I said, the whole defense, they played great team defense. I mean, not even a stance misalignment. Their feet were perfect. To see him then add on with his athleticism make tackles in the backfield and cut off the opportunity for the team to get on the edge was very effective for us.
“And he had a fantastic punt return, too. I thought that was a brilliant return he had.”
MGoQuestion: Does O’Korn and Morris and Malzone all getting a drive mean that the competition for the backup quarterback spot is still ongoing or have you settled on a backup?
“We’re just going to keep going. Just keep going and—it’s a very good positive. Very good positive. Some of those clichés you hear about if you have three quarterbacks you don’t have any good quarterbacks, that’s never resonated with me either, so…just continue to keep going, keep having at it.
“They’ve all commented how good it’s been, how helpful it’s been [that] there’s so many people in the mix. There’s people pushing Wilton. There’s people pushing John. There’s people pushing Shane, and they’re pushing each other. It’s like, I mean, it’s pushing each other higher. They’ve all commented on how good that’s been and, again, I think that showed today.”
What can you tell us about the injuries to Lewis, Braden, De’veon, Taco…?
“Jourdan Lewis, that was my decision not to play Jourdan today. He’s been working through something the last couple weeks and it’s…it’s healed, it really is. He’s done a marvelous job of getting himself ready to play, but [it was] my decision not play him in this ball game. Same with Ben Braden.
“Then Taco has an ankle [injury]. We’ll see how serious it is. De’Veon, I talked to him after the game, he said he’s fine. Bruised up a little bit but he’s okay. And Mone, we’ll get an MRI tonight and see where he stands. We’ll get an MRI set.”
What about Mo Hurst?
“Oh, Mo Hurst is the same status. Very close to playing. My decision to not play him in this game to make sure that he’s completely healed up. He should be by next week. Same with Jourdan.”
You talked a little bit about what Michael Jordan had to say, but can you tell us a little bit more, when you think back, about what effect that had on the team? And then how do you manage the high coming off a game like today, a big blowout win, they’ve got Jordan addressing them before the game—how do you rebuild the energy for the next week?
“First of all, Michael Jordan was fantastic with the team. He spent 45 minutes and really connected with them. I mean, really told them things that they could take away and apply to their own game, advice, tips. It was real. About playing your first game, about playing your first college game.
“Chris Evans asked the very first question of Michael Jordan: ‘What was it like playing in your first college game?’ And Michael talked about it, how he wanted to do everything right, he didn’t want to make mistakes, he didn’t want to screw anything up. That’s how he approached his very first college game, and he said ‘Trust your training. Trust the practice that you’ve had and that will carry for you, and continue to get better every day.’
“That warmed my heart when he talked about every single day trying to be better than the day before. A lot of things. Talking about pressure. Talking about the pressure moment, what he leaned on, what he thought made him effective in those moments. Talked about being a great teammate. Can’t do anything without your teammates. And pushing each other in practice to make each other better. Same things I think our team has been seeing for the last month and the last year. Same things they’ve been hearing.
“They were listening a lot better to Michael Jordan than they were to me. It was good. He was loose, he was funny with them. They couldn’t get enough. It was great. It was a real honor to have him sharing our sideline.”
[As per usual, the SID points out the location of the person with the microphone. Harbaugh’s not ready to move on.]
“I really want to talk about the secondary. Play was outstanding. The coverage was tight. Two interceptions for touchdowns—you don’t see that very often. I don’t think I’ve been a part of that in a game expect for just once, so that was really impressive. And I thought they were communicating well in the back end. And again, they were just really——they were right with their eyes and they were right with their feet in the secondary all day.”
The offense was 7-for-7 on third downs today. Can you touch on what you saw from the unit in those situations?
“Yeah, the protection was outstanding all day and that was a very attacking, aggressive defense that we saw today. Man-to-man coverage. Our guys were getting open, getting open by a step, and the quarterbacks were putting the ball a foot in front of the numbers.
“John O’Korn had a great slant route to Eddie McDoom, and I thought Eddie got grabbed coming off the line of scrimmage. Beat the tight press coverage. That’s something for a freshman that you’re not going to see a lot of, freshman working against tight man pressure and getting grabbed in the middle of the route and still making the tough catch, and John put it right there, right at the shoulders, a foot in front of the numbers. Just where you’d want it.
“Same with Wilton. The chemistry between the receivers and quarterbacks, I thought, was outstanding today and the protection was really good, and the running game was setting up a lot of the play action, so everything—the precision was extremely well. I think that’s what led to that.”