BALTIMORE RAVENS NAVY-MARINE CORPS MEMORIAL STADIUM PRACTICE TRANSCRIPTS
Head Coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement: "Wow! What a great contingent. This is really fun, man. Everybody having a good time? Has this been unbelievable or what? The crowd has been amazing, kids everywhere. We have kids ringing the stadium here. The parents have been roped off. It's all kids. Guys are going to sign autographs here for a good long while. They have already been signing for a while. I actually thought we practiced very well. I appreciate you guys being here. One other thing, the Naval Academy is unbelievable. Unbelievable. Commandant Bob Clark, my high school teammate from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, talked to our team before practice. He did a great job talking about leadership. You talk about command presence, he has it. So, it's been a great night all the way around."
On his thoughts about WR LaQuan Williams: "Looks like he made a couple of plays. I told him the last couple of days he forgot to bring his hands to practice. Today he remembered his hands, and he had a nice day."
On whether he thinks he could have made it at the Naval Academy: "Any regrets? They say the greatest pain in life is the pain of regret, right? I had a great, great... I love Miami [Ohio]. This is a great place, a really great place."
On LB Brendon Ayanbadejo being a well-rounded player: "The question is about Brendon Ayanbadejo and how well-rounded of a player he is. He really is. He is a guy that throughout his career they said couldn't play defense. He has pretty much proved them wrong, and obviously once again on Thursday night did a great job."
On if RB Bernard Pierce is progressing: "Yeah, Bernard, we went really slow with him, plus his fiancée had the baby. They are doing well, and they had a couple of rough spots with it, so blessings to them. Everything turned out well. That gave him a little bit more time to get the hamstring healthy, really. It worked out timing-wise, and he seems like he's fine."
On how long ago owner Steve Bisciotti pitched the idea to have a practice at the Naval Academy: "Probably, I'd say as long as a year ago. I'm having a tough time remembering. Right from the beginning I think Steve was excited about having practice here. It's beautiful, it's huge, it's his home area. The people here are great, so it's turned out it's a grand slam; no doubt about it."
On what he sees from NT Ma'ake Kemoeatu: "I would say 'Kemo' is pushing for a starting job. He has done that the last couple of, really since training camp has started. He's in great shape, and he's played extremely well."
On how WR Deonte Thompson has looked throughout training camp: "Well, Deonte had a little bit of a lull, actually. He had about three or four days… He had this good start to camp and then he had a couple of days that he lulled. Now he looks like he is getting his legs back a little bit. He's really sparked the last two days. So, he's making a little bit of a move."
On what it's going to take to keep six receivers on the team: "Well, it's going to take making plays on offense, I think. It's going to take special teams, as well. Those guys are going to play important roles on special teams. That's probably the two key factors."
On how G/T Kelechi Osemele handled taking a lot of snaps with the first team:"He's handled it like a champ. He's handled it extremely well. He hasn't missed a beat. He's made some rookie mistakes, his pass sets are inconsistent at times, but other than that he's done extremely well. He's done great with the playbook. He's smart, he studies, he works hard at it."
On if he thinks some of the guys on the Ravens could have made it through the Naval Academy: "Some of our guys? Oh, absolutely. We've got tough guys. Our guys are disciplined, hard-nosed guys. They would have been honored to be a part of the Naval Academy. Some of them might not have quite had the grades. (laughing) Some of them did. We won't mention any names."
On how the coaching staff prepares the players to compete on every play: "I appreciate that because I think we practice game-like situations all the time. You saw it out here today – a lot of game situations. So, the guys are competitive. They want to win the situation. We were going 'ones' against 'ones' the whole practice, and it was really competitive."
On what he likes about leaving M&T Bank Stadium to do a practice with the fans: "I haven't thought about it really, other than the fact that it's a really great venue. It's different. It's just new. This is a beautiful stadium, it's a beautiful town. It's just great to be here. It's a lot of fun."
On the college atmosphere: "Yeah, a little college setting to it. We should have brought the band, then we would have had it all figured out."
On going to different areas to attract a new market of Ravens fans: "You're going to get me in trouble. (laughing) It seems like most of the people here are definitely big-time Ravens fans, and it's very encouraging to see all the fans down here. We're in a small area – it's a tight area. There is enough room, there are enough people to support all the teams. And you talk about football and baseball, the four teams. You talk about the [Washington] Wizards and Caps, who I love watching. I'd like to see all the fans in Washington [D.C.], southern Maryland, northern Virginia, let us be your AFC team, and you can be our NFC team, except I am always going to kind of be with the Eagles myself. But, we can be fans of more than one team. It's a great sports area, and the Ravens are a big part of that."
