Draft prospects project how they fit 49ers

March 31, 2011MAIOCCO ARCHIVE49ERS PAGE49ERS VIDEOMatt MaioccoCSNBayArea.comJim Harbaugh is the only current NFL head coach who guided a college team last season.And his 49ers offensive and defensive coordinators, Greg Roman and Vic Fangio, are the only coaches in those NFL roles who were in college a year ago, too.
Most NFL coaches watch very little college football. They do not start learning about the draft prospects until after their NFL season has concluded. But the key members of the 49ers' coaching staff have a much deeper background with a larger number of the draft-eligible players.Harbaugh, Roman and Fangio coached or coached against at least 52 of the 329 (15.8 percent) prospects invited to the NFL scouting combine last month in Indianapolis. They recruited countless others.REWIND: 49ers announce Fangio, Roman, Drevno hires
The 49ers are looking to add a quarterback in the draft. Stanford played against three draftable quarterbacks -- Washington's Jake Locker, TCU's Andy Dalton and Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor -- during Harbaugh's time coaching the Cardinal. Moreover, Harbaugh recruited Missouri's Blaine Gabbert, expected to be one of the top two quarterbacks selected.And 49ers general manager Trent Baalke said he is leaning heavily on Harbaugh's perspective while implementing the organization's draft plan."He's going to be very instrumental," Baalke said. "Jim has a good feel for a lot of these players. He's been in a lot of their homes. He has recruited a lot of these guys. It's a unique advantage when you have a guy who has come from the college ranks, like Jim has."Harbaugh did not attend Locker's pro day in Seattle on Wednesday. Of course, Harbaugh watched plenty of Locker on film and in person over four Pac-10 seasons. And Locker watched plenty of Stanford, too."They had a very good running game and were awesome in play-action and naked (bootleg) stuff," Locker said at the Senior Bowl. "And they have a real productive downfield passing game. I thought they were really good at what they did."RELATED: Harbaugh attends Gabbert's pro day in Missouri
Meanwhile, Harbaugh traveled to TCU's pro day March 11 and spoke at length with Dalton, who is also scheduled to visit the 49ers' Santa Clara facility in the lead-up to the draft."To be in that style of offense would be a lot of fun to play in with coach Harbaugh," Dalton told CSN Bay Area. "I think he was a great hire (with the 49ers) and it'll be fun to see what he does."We actually played Stanford twice when I was at TCU, so I have an understanding of what they've done, and watching games on TV this year to see how productive they were."But it's not just players on the offensive side of the ball that think about what kind of an impression they made when facing Stanford in recent seasons. Even defensive players that faced Stanford reflect on how they performed in those games.STATS: Jake LockerBlaine GabbertAndy Dalton
"I think I fit to that system perfectly," said Washington outside linebacker Mason Foster, considered a top prospect at a position of need for the 49ers. "I feel like in their system, their linebackers flow inside-out and they get to rush a lot, too. The body of work I put together the last four years at Washington proves I could fit well."Those coaches over there are amazing. The way their offense and defense clicks and the way they play physical is incredible. They're a hard-nosed football team and came at you the whole game."Notre Dame nose tackle Ian Williams, a projected late-round prospect, said playing against Stanford was beneficial on a couple different levels. He gained exposure to an NFL coaching staff while giving him a break from facing another college spread offense."Hopefully, I played well enough for Coach Harbaugh and their other coaches," Williams said. "It really helped me and my teammates get ready for the next level because they ran power, overload power, 'iso,' and that's what the NFL does. It really did get us ready."