Harbaugh: Starting QB Position is "Earned"

At his Monday afternoon press conference following the loss to New York in the NFC Championship game, 49er head coach Jim Harbaugh addressed Alex Smith's status for next year and how Colin Kaepernick figures in the starting quarterback picture:

"Well I think we pretty much know how to go about that. Everything's earned. Everything is competed for. And that was the beauty of Alex Smith this past offseason. Many people had written how we told him the job was his. We never said that. We said that we'd get the best quarterbacks in here, and throw out the balls, and that's a position that's earned. That's never a, you know, an anointed position. I've always been very exact in the way we've said that, and not just the way we say it, but the way we do it."

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

‎"I'm not going to turn this press conference into a personnel meeting. There were a lot of factors. When you look at the Giants, in the last 11 series they gained 124 yards. Our defense was playing outstanding, but there were other factors." -Harbaugh when asked if they would make any changes at wide receiver given the unit's lack of production on Sunday

‎"The factors on both of those 4th downs was to punt them down, and get them backed up, and stop them, and get the return punt. We feel like if you can pin a team inside their own 10...then the numbers say when you get it back that the net field position should net you three points." -Why Harbaugh elected to punt instead of going for it on 4th down on two crucial series

-Kyle Williams hurt his left shoulder in the third quarter and attempted to play through it, something Harbaugh was unaware of the injury when it occurred.

-Harbaugh refused to give a direct response when asked about Crabtree's postgame comments that the wide receiver was left out of the offense late in the contest. Instead he alluded to the idea that when the media asks players questions immediately after a loss, they elicit raw, emotional answers.

-To be fair, some of these questions being asked were ridiculous, e.g., "How bad was Ginn's injury that it kept him out of the game?" "Enough to keep him out of the game," Harbaugh replied with a signature smirk.

-Another head-scratching question: "Do you want to keep this coaching staff intact?" Come on, who asked that one? What's Harbaugh supposed to say other than 'yes' after a banner year? Hell will freeze over before a coach, much less Harbaugh, replies with something like, "Uh, no, I want some of these guys gone."

-Finally, someone asked what the aforementioned reporter was probably trying to convey: "Have other teams contacted you about your assistants?" Harbaugh said, "I don't talk about other people's jobs other than my own." Stonewalled again, but at least you got the answer you were looking for.

-Of course, he spoke about how proud he was of the team and the organization, and how difficult it was to go from 6-10 to an NFC Title Game berth in only one season. Then in true Harbaugh fashion, he ended the presser by ridiculing a question about how he spent his time after the game.

"Is this California that everybody wants to know how you feel, care about what you thought, what you did, how your pinky feels...is that just a California thing?" Harbaugh asked aloud. "Not where I come from. No one really cares...it's a Midwestern thing."

For the record, he went to Palo Alto High after spending the early part of his adolescence in Iowa and Michigan. Of course, the prickly pear refrained from answering the actual question, something of minimal consequence in this town when you win--and he did that in spades this season.

Thoughts?