Michigan Football: Former Harbaugh QB Joins This Week's Podcast
Former NFL quarterback Todd Mortensen — who played for Jim Harbaugh during his debut season at San Diego in 2004 — joined this week's "Attack Each day" podcast to reminisce a bit from his collegiate days.
We have the highlights below:
Jack Harbaugh, recalling about a funny story from his childhood:
“The first time I could go out for football was in 1954 when I was in seventh grade. They were teaching us how to tackle in power-producing angles, and the coach would shout ‘hit’ when the ball carrier ran at you, and you had to tackle him.
"So I was in the tackler’s line one day and counted over to the ball carrier line to see who I'd be matched up with, and it was against a guy named Ralph — he weighed 178 pounds in seventh grade, and I weighed 95 at the time.
"I thought to myself this is not a good idea, and that maybe it'd be better if I just quit football. I looked around and saw other kids practicing golf and tennis, and thought those might be better suited for me. My father had told me I had to finish the season though, so I knew quitting wasn't an option.
"Then I thought maybe I’ll just tell the coach I had an upset stomach, but the kid in front of me had already used that one, so that wasn't going to work either.
"I eventually got to the front of the line, and noticed Ralph had an eyebrow that went across both eyes — a unibrow. And he had some day two growth on his face and snot balls coming out of his nose.
"I got down in a good position, and threw my body into him and tried to wrap when he came at me. The next thing I know, I was up in the air and realized I was riding him down the field. I have no idea why, but he then hit the ground, and I realized I had just made my first tackle.
"I checked to see if all my body parts were still in place — they were — but realized I couldn’t see, except for a little hole in front of my face. My helmet had gotten twisted around and I was looking through an earhole. I fixed my helmet and walked back to the line thinking pretty highly of myself.
"I learned two things that day — that I wanted to play and coach football for as long as I could, and that I didn't want to go through life scared. If I could tackle Ralph, I could do anything.”
Jim Harbaugh, on why kids should play football:
“At some point, you have to cut the umbilical chord. Some parents think they’re nurturing [by not letting kids play], but they’re really neutering.”
Jim Harbaugh:
“I was in Toledo last week, and someone told me I would’ve made a great lawyer. I would have loved to have been a lawyer defending a client or hammering away at a jury in a courtroom.
"I would have also loved to have been a judge with the gavel and everything. I don't think my communications degree would have allowed me to become a judge or a lawyer though."
Todd Mortensen:
“We were in pregame once and Jack Harbaugh was telling all the running backs about the importance of footwork, and he said we had to be light on our feet like [famous dancer] Fred Astaire.
"All the running backs looked back with a blank stare. He was like, ‘How do you not know who Fred Astaire is?’
"He then lost his train of thought because he couldn’t believe I knew who Fred Astaire and [his partner] Ginger Rogers were.”
Todd Mortensen:
“I last attended a Michigan game in early 2015, and Jim asked me to speak with Jake [Rudock] after a practice when he was struggling a bit. So I introduced myself to him after practice, and I told him to just keep doing what he’s doing, because I could tell he knew the playbook.
"After the fourth or fifth game, I knew things would start to click and the game would slow down. From that point on, Jake had a really good year.”
Jack Harbaugh:
“We didn’t take ACTs or SATs when I was trying to get into Bowling Green for college. If you could blow on a mirror and it fogged up, you were in.”
Jim Harbaugh, on this year's quarterbacks:
“It’s a good group. [Junior] Shea [Patterson], [redshirt sophomore] Brandon Peters, [redshirt freshman] Dylan McCaffrey — has anyone improved more than Dylan? He moves the team.
"And [freshman] Joe Milton had a heck of a spring. Someone made the joke that they should get him his own office here, because he’s trying to watch tape every single day.”
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