NFL Combine 2013: 49ers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh Transcript

"Got the paw in the ground, scratching ready to go."

On whether he's talked to his brother:

"Yeah, I've talked to him."

Did you talk about the Super Bowl?

"A little bit. Talked a little about the game and some other things."

On whether the Super Bowl affects the relationship with his brother:

"Don't think it affects (it), other than stronger."

On why it's stronger:

"I don't know. We have a strong relationship, and it always seems to get stronger. (We're) very close."

On whether it there were any insights into the game he learned from his brother's perspective:

"No."

On the public fascination of the brothers:

"I think it's a fascinating thing, to use your word. What more can I tell you? . . . We discussed some facets into the game and some other football talk."

Is it easier losing to your brother?

"No, it's not easier."

Where is the line drawn on sharing information with your brother?

"I don't think we've shared a whole lot of strategy throughout the course of the season. It's definitely gotten less, the longer I've been in the league."

With 14 draft picks, do you see 14 spots on your roster?

"Do I see it? Do I envision it? Is it possible? I mean, it's certainly possible. We're here to draft the best football players that we can. Feel good about having that many picks."

Will it make you more active during the draft?

"Will it make us more active on draft weekend? Uh, I think you can certainly assume that it would. You comparing to last year? Seven picks last year? To say we'd be more active in the draft this year wouldn't get going out on a limb by saying we'll be more active this draft. I think that's true."

On what impressed him about Colin Kaepernick at the combine two years ago:

"Quite a few things. I thought the things we'd seen on tape showed up in the workout. His competitive nature, for sure. He threw and did everything at the combine. Interview was outstanding. So several things."

On Kaepernick's work ethic:

"I think it's one of his assets, one of the things that makes him who he is. It's one of the things that's made him who he is. He's got great attitude. He has a great work ethic. People who have a great attitude and a great work ethic, there are very few circumstances or situations that can keep you from being good. I think that goes for anybody. Maybe there's a percentage of really bad luck in there that I'm not factoring in. But darn-near 100 percent when you have a great work ethic and great attitude things are going to work out really well."

Do you want to see guys take some time off?

"That's OK. Some R&R is needed. But I don't think it's any set amount. This is a job, playing professional football, that's at least 11 month or 12-month-a-year job. You don't want to get out of shape. It's easier to just stay in shape than it is to get out of shape and then try to get back in shape."

On intangibles, is it about what others tell you or what you see in a player's eyes?

"I think there's certainly a part of being with somebody for a half an hour or 15 minutes or an hour or two that you can know somebody. Some people have that ability to have a 30 minute conversation with them and you walk away thinking you really know that person. Others, you can't. You have to validate a meeting with a person or two or three conversations with their track record, their relationships with other people at their school, their teammates, their trainers, equipment managers, teachers, professors, their family. People usually leave a track record of success or failure or success and failure. So, I think, both. . . . But the look in eye? The gleam-in-the-eye test? I don't possess the ability to look in the eye and know somebody -- or claim to."

On a prospect not being truthful:

"Somebody that's not truthful, that's big, to me. I'm a big fan of the Judge Judy show. And when you lie in Judge Judy's courtroom, it's over. Your credibility is completely lost. You have no chance of winning that case. So I learned that from her. It's very powerful, and true. Because if somebody does lie to you, how can you ever trust anything they ever say after that? Ronald Reagan, another person of great wisdom and advice, 'Trust but we will verify.' "

On using the loss in the Super Bowl as motivation:

"I think, I saw this in the last two or three weeks. A lot of people want you to look at it through a certain lens of you-got-there-but-it-wasn't-as-good-as-you-wanted lens. Or if you get to that game you got to win that game or else. I don't know what the 'or else' is. And several other lenses, like it was a successful season or it wasn't. Either team could've won it, etc., etc. It can go on for a while. The lens that I choose to use, that we choose to use, is look at yourself. Where can you get better? And we're forging ahead with a new day. It's a new day today and paws in the ground and we're attacking it with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. And see if we can't make today better yesterday and tomorrow better . . . a little bit better tomorrow than we were today. That's our attitude with it."

Is Manti Te'o undraftable because of the trust factor?

"No. I wouldn't say that."

How much time elapsed between the game and you talking with your brother and who reached out first?

"Who actually dialed the phone? I called him."

Can you imagine 14 draft picks making your roster?

"Yeah, that was asked a little earlier. Can I imagine it? Sure. Anything's possible. But we also have a lot of good players on our team. Just as a point of fact, take all the players we have on our team, and would love to see them develop, and coach them to be the best they can be, so there's no way 14 players can come in and make the roster. And, simultaneously, at the same time, we're going to find 14 players to come in and beat out 14 of our guys who are currently on the team. That's working at the same time. It's iron sharpening iron effect. I can imagine it both ways.

On Alex Smith:

"I'll be a process. That's the reality of it. That's the way it'll play out over the next so many weeks or months."

On A.J. Jenkins:

"Same thing I'm looking for for myself, continual effort and continual improvement."

On Alex Smith's past two seasons:

"That list of things, A) I don't have that in front of me and B) I think the main thing is Alex is a heck of a football player. Alex is really playing the best football of his career the last two years. And we think we have the best quarterback situation in the National Football League. Feel strongly about that. Again, that'll be a process that plays out. Alex Smith, continuing to be a 49ers or if a trade occurs in the next weeks or months. Those are the two possibilities -- most-likely possibilities."

On being objective when it comes to Stanford players:

"Really the same way you're objective with any player, watching the tape. Most all of evaluation is really done off the production on the tape."

Are you saying a release of Alex Smith is unlikely?

"It's unlikely."

When did you reach out to your brother after the Super Bowl?

"A number of days, a couple of days, two, three days, four days. Something like that."