[Fuller/MGoBlog]

MGoQuestion: Which receivers have impressed you the most since spring started?

“Well, you know, we haven’t had Jehu [Chesson]. Amara [Darboh] has had a very good spring so far. Really working hard at his craft. I mean, just you would think—you know, it felt like he just picked up where he left off against Florida. Grant Perry, same thing. Really good spring so far. Picked up where he left off. Drake Harris had a really good last two days. Had his best day today. Really making some plays with his—we all know he’s a basketball player, right? But he’s shown that ability. And then Ahmir Mitchell’s come in and he’s competing. These guys are supposed to be in high school right now and he’s practicing as hard as he can. And Moe Ways has improved a lot. Moe Ways, I’m not sure I can remember a drop in spring. I think Moe Ways leads us with the least amount of drops, so it’s been a good—you know, those guys have all come in and they’ve all done a nice job coming back and kind of letting us pick up where we left off.”

What kind of things are you able to do with them this year now that you’re not building the foundation like last spring? How much further ahead?

“Yeah, well, we’re a little light on numbers until the next batch comes in in terms of we’ve got four or five guys coming in. So in terms of what we’re doing, we’re just building off of what we did and asking these guys to really push themselves and fight through it and they’ve become really well conditioned, and then you’re able to tweak a route or tweak a release or change some things up. ‘Hey, this is how we did it all of last fall. Here’s you on film’ rather than ‘Here’s Allen Robinson on film’ or ‘Here’s Brandon Marshall on film,’ [it’s] ‘Here’s you on film. How can we make that better?’”

With so few, are you able to do more individual tweaking?

“Yeah, that’s one of the benefits of where we’re at right now is you can really hone in and focus in and spend the time getting Ahmir caught up to speed, time getting Grant ready to play outside and inside, really focusing in on Moe Ways playing both spots on the perimeter and just kind of making those ‘Hey, in one-on-ones, here’s you running the route; here’s you last year running the route. Look at the difference.’”

After what Amara and Jehu gave you last year, what do you still need from a third wide receiver or a fourth wide receiver?

“Um, well, we need more production. We need someone else to be in that range of 40 or 50 catches. We need Amara and Jehu to be in the range of 75 catches. You know, they need to get up and the third receiver then needs to bring his numbers up. Maybe our third receiver had like 20 catches or something. Let’s get to 40. Let’s get to two more first downs a game. You know, give us two more first downs a game. Give us one more explosive play a game. Keep us on the field for one more drive, and then allow us to play with more guys. Let’s play with more receivers, you know, and get more guys ready to go. It’ll be fun to see what these guys can do.”

[After THE JUMP: if you would like to be considered for the starting quarterback position please leave your application at the front desk]

Are you guys still going even on the quarterbacks in terms of reps?

“Yep. Yep.”

With the quarterbacks, Jake Rudock’s gone, John O’Korn’s proven but had to take a year off. What is your plan for developing this group of quarterbacks this spring?

“Well, we’re coaching them very hard every day and the development will come from repetition, will come from film study, and will come from how hard they want to work outside of the building or outside of the meeting room, outside of the coaching. How much can they take from what coach Harbaugh or coach Drevno or myself have told them and then what can they do with it? You know, once we leave the room, what can they do with it? How can they get better? Those guys all need to develop. Somebody needs to become the guy, and we’ve got time to figure that out.”

They have to be self-motivated, it sounds like.

“Without a doubt. Without a doubt. To be great you have to be self-motivated. You have to lead. You have to be confident. You need the people around you to look at you and say, ‘I want to play with this guy.’ There’s no way in 20 hours a week can you do it. You’ve got to double that time at home.”

Have you had a quarterback like that who was extremely self-motivated? Maybe Jake, maybe someone you’ve worked with in the past that you can use as an example with those guys, like this is a guy you want to model yourself after?

“Well, model yourself after Jake [Rudock] and good things will come. I mean, model yourself after the way Jake walked into this building in everything you do, in every single thing you do: in the way you handle yourself outside, the way you handle yourself with the press, the way you handle yourself in the classroom, the way you handle yourself on the field. Just do that, and that was their greatest role model. That was their greatest role model because the rest of it is just telling stories, right? All coaches tell stories: ‘Oh, when I had Matt Hasselbeck;’ ‘Oh, when I had Steve McNair,’ and then coach Harbaugh can talk about when he played or when he coached Rich Gannon. But those guys saw Jake and they could really do a great job of modeling themselves after him.”

What does John have to do to get the number one spot in spring and what does Shane have to do?

“I think they all just have to—I don’t think it’s a John or a Shane. The quarterbacks, they just have to work. They have to complete passes, they to not turn the ball over, they have to not take sacks, they have to create explosive plays, they have to avoid negative plays, and we grade them on that and they have to have the highest number on that, you know, the highest points and if they can do that they can take the lead into fall. But, you know, right now, I’m sure coach Harbaugh’s said it and coach Drevno’s said it, we’re in no rush. One of them will need to find a way to put us in a rush by taking the job.”

Jim was really complimentary of Brandon [Peters] after that first week. Is it realistic to say that a kid like that could take the job? Could he win the job?

“I think anything’s realistic in Apr-in March. Yeah, right now. I think the fact is that Brandon came in here [and] should be a high school senior and has worked really hard and is trying to catch up and is trying to feel his way through it. He’s continuing to improve and he’s continuing to understand what it feels like to get better and what it feels like to—you know when you walk into a test and you haven’t studied or it’s a really hard class and you don’t know it well enough, you feel really anxious. When you walk into a test and you’re like, ‘Wow, I knew the answer to that question! That felt really great!’ Well, he’s beginning to know more answers, and when you know more answers you begin to feel a little more confident and can get in and out of the huddle quicker, and that’s what he’s doing.”

You’re not in a rush, but at this point wouldn’t you want to see somebody edging ahead?

“Anybody that wants to edge ahead certainly can. I tell them that all the time. Anybody that wants to do that or can do that, please feel free to do that. But we’re not going to force it, and we’re not going to right now—we haven not decided that we’re just going to say, ‘Okay, you’re it.’ You know, just keep going. Keep competing. Keep finding a way. It’ll happen. It always happens and you always find the starter.”

Well, you’ve got to pick somebody.

“Yeah, someone’s going to play that first play of the season and hopefully they play really well.”

When you guys say you’re in no rush, you could wait right until the week before? You did last year, more or less.

“Yeah. When did we name Jake? I forget. August 20th?”

Never did.

“Yeah, we never did, right? We never, like, really did, did we?”

When he took the first snap.

“Yeah, so, I mean, we could do that, I guess.”

But in terms of somebody’s got to develop chemistry with those receivers…

“Yeah, you get that. We have a lot of plays in practice. There’s a lot of chemistry developed. And they all should be trying to. They all should be trying to. All summer long, whatever they do, they will have plenty of opportunity to do whatever they need to do to develop that chemistry. And when that happens and they start completing a lot of passes and not turning it over and throwing touchdowns in practice and all those good things then we’ll be in good shape.”

Has Shane finally developed some touch? It looked like, the few practices in Florida we saw, maybe he has.

“Yeah, Shane’s working on it very hard and he’s working on that part of his game. I think there’s always a challenge, right? It’s like, you work on developing touch and then I tell him, I go ‘rip the ball in there’ and he’s like, ‘Wait, am I developing touch or am I ripping the ball in there?’ So everything’s based on just understanding shot selection, right? I mean, whatever sport you’re playing you have to understand shot selection, and he has to understand throw selection. You know, on this throw it’s more of a trajectory, on this throw it’s more of a line drive, on this throw I have to change my arm slot, whatever it might be. That’s where the evolution, the development, and the growth comes from.”

What part of John’s game would you like to see him work on strengthening in that same vein?

“I think he just needs to go out and make more consistent plays. Make more consistent plays. Make more consis—everybody, somebody, make more consistent plays and from John for sure. And feel confident. Go out there and say, ‘Hey, I can throw that ball’ or ‘I can step up and make that play’ and let loose. He’s doing a really nice job, though. All those guys, they’re all doing well. It’s just a matter of now watching them try to find ways to get better.”

Jehu, will he practice this spring?

“I don’t know. I don’t know that part. I just do what the doctors and Coach tell me on that.”

Were you disappointed that Jake Rudock didn’t get an invite to the combine, and why will he be a good pro in your mind?

“Umm, I was disappointed for him because he seemed like he was disappointed, but no reason to be disappointed. I told him that. I could share a million stories of guys not invited to the combine. The combine is what the combine is. I think he will be…a team will be very happy when they decided to get Jake Rudock on their team, whether they draft him—which would be great—or they sign him as a free agent. 

“He will walk into that building and he’ll do everything they want him to do and he’ll do it well. NFL teams want consistent guys, they want hard working guys, they want guys that will cause no wake, they want guys in that position that will go out there and be able to perform on the big stage under the lights and not let it affect them, and that’s why I think Jake’s going to do really well with whichever team decides to bring him in.”

Have you fielded a lot of inquiries from teams interest in him?

“Yep. Lot of teams interested in him and knowing about him.”