[Fuller]

To the turnovers with Jake [Rudock]: is that a concern, or something where you don't see him do it much in practice so…?
“Well, the first game, obviously we never want to play with three turnovers. Three interceptions in that game, and then this past game with the sack-fumble and the interception. So, I guess you'd be accounted for five, which is tough because of the fact that a lot of things go into all of those. The one that I was most disappointed on probably was the sack-fumble because that was the most avoidable. He had an opportunity to kick it out there when he was hot and he held onto the ball there. But the others, you know, we’ve gotta- I think he played very smart football this past week in comparison to maybe one or two plays at Utah that you’d probably like to take back.

“But no, he's not a guy that's been prone to throw interceptions. So he's thrown four, which is two right now a game. If he can have a few games with zero he'll get right back to his average. If you throw one a game you throw 12 for the year. If you could get a few games with zero you get that number down to about six or seven, so he's got to do that. He's got to strive for that number to get to about somewhere less than 10 for the year and try to double the touchdowns. You'd like to get to a 2 to 1 ratio there or more, so we’ll look for that. But yeah, I think that he's smart with the ball. Doesn't take sacks. Only one sack in 76 pass attempts, so that's exciting.”
What would you consider an optimal performance from your quarterbacks?
“Yeah, well, he was close with 70% completion. I think if you could get to that number every week you’d be awfully happy. I think the interception was the second to last pass he threw on the night or day. So, you know, that was unfortunate in that situation. He certainly didn't have to cram a ball in there up 21 points, so he could've walked away from the game – had a couple touchdown pass opportunities.

“Went kind of to a different side, which they were some opportunities there that… So I'd love to walk away with A couple of touchdowns, a 70% completion, and no interceptions. Sign me up for that. And he had that one sack which was avoidable, so we could've gone two games without a sack, which is a credit to all 11.”

[After THE JUMP: Checkdowns, rub routes, and playcalling logistics]

How much easier is it when you get that running game and have that balance?
“Well, we all strive for that. The most important thing you can do you as a football team is be able to run the football and stop the run. When you can make a team one-dimensional, defensively all good things happen and in our situation when we can not be one-dimensional, when they could say we ran the ball extremely well – we ran the ball for 240 yards-it was fun to watch it, watch our guys come off the ball. And to be able to really have to throw it 20-something times a game is great. It’s great. You know, it’s what you want.

“A lot of times I’ve said you always want to be 50-50, but you only want to be 50-50 the first three quarters of the game. You’d like to be 80-20 in that fourth quarter, and that could really put you where you want to be.”

One of the knocks against Jake when he was at Iowa was he was a little conservative, [that] he was too quick to hit a checkdown. Do you try to coach that out of him or do you want him to do that?

“Well, I think we try- you know, I don’t know the stats per se on where we are compared to other teams, but I think we’ve tried to stretch the field pretty good. We’ve taken some shots down the field. You know, third-and-five we threw a Go route to Jehu [Chesson]. Had a couple opportunities in the first game where we launched some balls out there. Launched a ball out there fist play of the game, so he doesn’t seem afraid to throw the ball out there to me.

“And then, what he does do extremely well is he does move in the pocket and find checkdowns. That fourth-and-five was probably the best play of his of the night, and then also there was a second-and-17 where he moved forward and hit Ian Bunting and put us down there on the three or four yard line. I think both of those were huge touchdown assists, I guess you’d say. That although it wasn’t a touchdown pass, we certainly credit him with being able to put us in that fourth-and-five- that sequence, really, of third-and-seven, convert it for a first down, penalty, third-and-20, get the 15 yards that allows us to go for it on fourth-and-five, find your checkdown and get a first and then score, run the ball in there for a touch was a really good sequence for our offense.”

Who’s calling the game. How does that work on gameday?

“Oh, we all work together and it’s been an awesome deal in terms of coach Harbaugh and coach Drevno and myself and our whole offensive staff. We- it’s a situation where we all get to kind of give great input regarding our area, so to speak, as well as the course of the game, so it’s a great dynamic in that regard.”

So you can do that play-to-play? You can have the three-?

“Yeah. Yeah, there’s- think he’s done that everywhere, and it’s an awesome deal to be able to work with coach Drevno and coach Harbaugh. They have extreme experience with that, and it’s worked extremely well.”

Who has the final say there when you have to make that decision?

“Coach Harbaugh has the final say in everything we do.”

Is that a unique setup from what you’re used to experiencing?

“It’s unique in what I’ve done before, but it’s something that I would always do from now on.”

What’s the benefit to doing it this way, that you would say you’d always do it this way from now on?

“I think what it does is you really have the opportunity to play to everybody’s strengths. You have a great opportunity for everybody to work together and have a great…not put any one thing on any one particular shoulders, but an opportunity for everybody to work together and really use all of your coaches all the time. We’ve got a great staff with coach Wheatley and Jay and obviously coach Drevno does an amazing job as the offensive coordinator.”

Is it the entire offensive staff or is it just you and Jim?

“Oh, everybody works together.”

Do you guys script at the beginning? Do you guys script plays?

“Yeah, we always look into the best way to start a game.”

It’s not necessarily always the same?

“No, it’s not always the same, but we always look at the best way and the best approach to do that.”

MGoQuestion: How do you coach your receivers to avoid offensive pass interference penalties on rub routes like the one that Jehu ran on Saturday?

“Avoid the defender, truthfully. There’s no need to run into defenders. You can do a great job by avoiding a defender at the last second and get everything you want out of the play rather than make contact and put yourself at risk and put the team at risk. It can be done without having to make any contact and still hit crossing routes for big plays.”

The other day Jim talked about the scout team and how impressive they were. How much of that is John [O’Korn] and kind of what he’s doing there? Are you looking at him and impressed with what…?

“The scout team in general?”

Well, O’Korn especially.

“I don’t really get to spend much time looking at the offensive scout team. More time is spent looking at the defensive scout team and the effort that they give for us. I’ve heard defensively that all those guys have done a great job in terms of giving great looks, but offensively, you know, your team is made during the week.

“Your plan is really made during the week, and the way that plan works is everybody puts in that type of effort and gives you the fastest look possible and you have the best opportunity to succeed on Saturday.”

The defensive scout team, what are they doing to replicate UNLV in preparation for this weekend?

“Everything we do is we have a bunch of carded periods where we draw up what we expect defensively and then let them try to execute that the best way possible knowing that they’ve never run that- another team’s defense. They run their own, but we give them the opportunity to look at a picture, look at a card, go full speed.”

What have you liked about O’Korn when you’ve seen him play in individual drills?

“Just a lot of good things. Strong arm, really a positive, confident player on our football team and somebody that really you can see he’s had some experience as a starter. Has some confidence, moxie about him and throws a pretty ball. Throws a pretty ball.”

Does Rudock come off with a confidence and moxie? He seems to bristle a little bit when people say, ‘You’re a game manager.’ He doesn’t seem to like it.

“Yeah, I would too. I would too bristle at that. I think he’s a very mature, intense, and leader. Guys want to play with him and for him, and he has a not just a seriousness about him but he takes his craft- it’s very important to him, and he wants to make sure he improves every day he walks out on the field. There’s no question who the starting quarterback is.”

Obviously Jake Butt is not in your room, but talk about him as a target for Jake.

“When you put the passing game together [and] you’re able to have somebody with that size and catching ability and hands and radius, he’s obviously somebody you always keep in mind when you’re putting a plan together to see how you can incorporate him along with the five other tight ends that we have that we try to find ways to get catches for. We try to run certain plays for certain guys, but for the most part we believe that the guys can find ways to execute, just like AJ did last week on that long corner route. Some of the other guys- Ian Bunting had some catches. I guess Jake, so maybe three tight ends had catches last week, and Khalid [Hill] didn’t play.”

Jim said Shane would try to redshirt this year if possible; he wouldn’t put him in in clean up/mop up duty. How has he responded to not winning this job?

“He’s been great. Works extremely hard and is a very, very serious guy. He’s a very intense guy. It matters to him. Every day he comes ready to go, and we talk about every rep being a championship rep and he does a great job with that. He does a great job. He finds a way to constantly improve. Finds a way to constantly challenge Jake to get better, and I think he’s handled it extremely well.”