John Harbaugh: Press Conference (1/18)

Welcome into the Ravens Press Past podcast. It is Thursday, January eighteenth, and the Ravens held their final practice ahead of the Divisional round matchup coming up on Saturday at four point thirty pm against the Houston Texans at M and T at Banks Stadium. After practice, we had a chance to hear from head coach John Harball, who discussed where the team stands going into this game.

Okay, good to see everybody, appreciate you being here. Another great day for football. Guys are in great spirits, joy to be out there. Excited, big challenge, a very good opponent. They're hot, been playing great and as playoffs, you know, so excited for our fans. Our fans can get a chance to be in that stadium and support us. We know that they're going to be amazing like they always are. And then just one last thing, a shout out to the grounds crew for this week getting us a chance

So we've got a strong grounds crew. What questions you have, like out.

Of practice that you know this is a little bit it's a couple of days away from you know, you know, playing it.

In that playoff team, you can because there's sharp you know, they're sharp or on point, they're locked in.

I think they have the good.

Combination of of you know, stay loose, stay focused, and that's how they've approached it.

Game time decisions.

Some of the guys that they be enacted it could go there. Duvene looks good as I'd say he's gonna play for sure. Mark is still up in the air. Uh Marlin, you know, it's a little dicey right now with Marlon isn't practiced.

I don't know if he'll make it.

He's probably the person I'm least optimistic about right now.

Possible advantages you look at maybe the weather being as much of an advantage as the crowd noise for for your doing well.

I just think it's good for us to have a chance to get out and practice, uh, you know, in the in the temperature and stuff like that. So it's a football game. Both teams are going to be ready to play. I don't think it's going to be a determiner. We just got to deal with it as we deal with it and do what we do and try to do it well.

An idea what this two weeks would be like and preparing for knowing you to get that by Did you get accomplished?

I feel like the plan was what worked out the way you wanted to do. I feel great about the guys. I think the guys have done great.

You know, they've worked hard, Pete, They've they've we had four practices last week, we had our three practices this week, or we'll walk through tomorrow. But they've been like they've been all season. Hasn't really been different. They've you know, it's definitely playoff football. They're definitely excited about that, but that's how they've approached their work all year.

Do you see the backfield and the opportunity for Calvin.

Could right, Yeah, Dalvin will be will be in there. I think it's gonna be a great opportunity for him and for us. You know, be looking forward to seeing how he does.

You know, it's new. We haven't seen him out there, just like you guys haven't seen him. We haven't seen him.

We've seen him in practice, he looks good and you know he's gonna be out there like everybody else, try to do whatever you can do to help us win the game.

They didn't have one experience with the kind of mesh points stuff, you know, coming back from that more CoA style in the Minnesota, and was that kind of a new challenge for him.

To take on.

Well, he's been great with it. I think he's done it before, so it hasn't been an issue at all.

You know, we see your brothers starting to get some head coach and interviews. If you thought about what it'll be like to coach against him, and do you have a preference him with conference?

He make go well, I mean he's he's I don't know what he's gonna do. You know, I'm not sure what what what Jim's plans or I think whatever he does, uh, you know, it'll be you know, what's best for him and his family. I know, I know, you know, Michigan has been a joy, you know, for him to go back to his alma mater. His family loves it, theirs, the players love him. He loves the players, coaches, the fan base.

You know.

So I don't know exactly what direction is going to go. I would think that the the president and the board of trustees would be doing everything they can to try to keep him, you know, and uh, that would be uh, that'd be probably one of if I was them. But I think at the end, he's gonna do whatever's best for he and his family. And he's Michigan. Uh, but the NFL. You know, he loves the NFL too, So we'll just have to see all.

You and talking and you would you chop that up with him?

And he's just kind of you I think if he had something he hasn't. Really he knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. He's he's pretty uh, he's pretty aware.

If he does make it to the NFL, would you rather be or not be on the on your schedule?

Uh, He'll well, eventually he'll be on the schedule, There's no doubt. And uh, those are always challenging games because really, be honest with he's such a great coach, you know, and his teams are always ready to roll.

Man, they always are.

They're always well coached, are always fundamentally sound, they always play super hard, They're always connected, you know, emotionally, so just one of he's one of I think he's the best coach in football.

He's a great coach.

I think the genesis question. You know, you two have a lot of conversations about everything, including football. If he's in the same conference, is that change the conversations and what you prefer he's not in the same conference.

That's a fair question. Yeah, it's like you play more often. To your point, uh, that that might change the conversations just a little bit if on the schedule soon.

John with with Mark.

Has he surprised you at all this week with the level of participation he's had during Pricte, Well, it's been it's been good to see I know that.

I don't know. I don't know if surprise is the right word.

I probably didn't have any expectation, you know, just kind of waiting to see when he was out there. This is his first week out there in that kind of way, and and it was it was encouraging.

John with just being another shannonhan Tree offense and you guys haven't faced so many down the stretch. Does does it make the challenge or does it make the assignment of preparing for this defense anymore? Management for you guys, in your staff.

Well, uh, some you know, there's there are there's family trees to your point, and you know a lot of there's a lot of head coaches coordinators in this league, head coaches in this league who are running that offense and also the defense too.

You know.

Uh, it's the same.

As kind of the Seattle kind of system that evolved over the last ten or twelve years. So we just get to know, you get to know those systems and how they were. But every every different coaching staff puts their spin on it. Every different group of players has a different way of you know, they adopt a system for the players differently. So you just gotta take every team as they come and every team is unique and how they do it.

That was head coach John Harball. You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Also, if you're listening to this, on Thursday afternoon, while there is still time, we are hosting a live episode of the Lounge podcast at High Tops coming up at seven pm Thursday night. It's gonna be a great time, so join us for the fun again at seven o'clock at High Tops on Thursday night. Also make sure you leave a rating and a review and hit the subscribe button here as well. Thanks for listening.