Jack and Jim Harbaugh did most of the talking on this week's edition of "Attack Each day," but former Western Kentucky safety Brian Louder — who played for Jack Harbaugh on the 2002 national championship team — briefly joined the podcast as well to reminisce.
We have the highlights below:
Jim Harbaugh:
“I felt like I learned more from the guides during our day at Normandy than I did reading books, and I’ve read several books on World War II and Omaha Beach.”
Jim Harbaugh:
“I found out about the [junior quarterback] Shea [Patterson] news on either Friday or Saturday night around 11:00."
Jim Harbaugh:
“I’m proud to report that the Harbaugh kids are coming along nicely [in sports]. Addie scored a goal in all of her recent soccer games. Jack is on a streak of scoring a goal in several straight games.
"His team won 3-0 the other day and Jack scored the third goal, and we congratulated him afterward. He told us his was the winning one, so in his mind, the last goal is always the game-winner."
Brian Louder, on why a scuffle broke out after one of Western Kentucky's games in 2002:
“All video evidence has been destroyed. It probably wasn’t the best idea, but one of our guys took a hammer out to the 50-yard line and started swinging it around after a win at Western Illinois, and things escalated quickly.”
Jack Harbaugh, on his Western Kentucky squad's run to the 2002 national championship:
"In 2002, we didn’t even win our own league, but we made it into the playoffs as an at-large team — the 15th seed out of 16 teams. We went up to play at Western Illinois — they had beaten us 14-0 in the regular season — and they missed a late field goal that would've tied the game.
"Afterward, a riot broke out as we were going over to shake their hands. One of our guys had gotten hit in the head during the scuffle, and it turned into an ol' donnybrook.
"I went into the press conference and someone said the sheriff was coming to arrest one of our players who had been swinging a sledgehammer on the field after the game — we got out of there right away.
"We next played at Georgia Southern, and had 12 players suspended because of the incident from the previous game. We held a two-score lead, and in the fourth quarter they went ahead with five minutes left. Our guys converted a fourth down by a foot, and then Jack Harbaugh’s coaching came into play. Our quarterback threw a ball down the field about three yards out of bounds, and somehow our receiver managed to come down with it. We then took a three-point lead with just 1:06 to go, and they attempted to tie it with a 45-yard field, but it missed.
"That sent us to the national championship game to face McNeese State. They had beaten us 38-14 earlier in the year, and their only loss was to Nebraska. We wound up beating them by about the same score they had beaten us. John and Jim actually put in about seven new offensive plays before the game, and every single one of them worked.”
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