Bonus Q&A: Talkin’ Harbaugh with Beeler

Even though college football has always been our bread and butter at The Oklahoman and on NewsOK.com, we’re ramping up the coverage even more with a new college football page on Sundays.

Hope you enjoyed the inaugural one a week ago.

This week, The Q&A is with former Jenks High standout Chase Beeler who just finished a senior All-American season at Stanford. He had lots to say — so much, in fact, that I can’t fit it all in the newspaper. Here’s some bonus coverage from my conversation with Beeler:

Jim Harbaugh, now the coach of the 49ers. Did you think a move to the NFL might be in the offing for him?

Rumors were floated and circulated last year about whether he might leave. I think we were all pretty convinced that he wanted to come back and give it another run this year. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he stayed, but knowing what I know about him and his competitive nature to excel at whatever sphere he’s competing in, I wasn’t taken aback when he accepted that job.

Now that Coach Harbaugh is leaving, where do you see the Stanford program in five years?

Coach Shaw, the offensive coordinator who got the job, he’s a fantastic coach. Very intelligent. I always thought I could see him in a head coach role. One of the challenges that Stanford faces is … having to draw from a somewhat smaller pool than many other institutions have to recruit from. You looking for great football players, but you’re also looking for outstanding students, and that can be a little bit of a challenge. But I would think coming off a 12-1 season even with the coaching change, it wouldn’t really alter the recruiting landscape. I think as long as you sustain success, recruiting won’t be a problem. I’m not at all worried about the coaching aspect of it. I don’t think there’s going to be any sort of a drop-off.

You were named an All-American this season. What was your reaction to that honor?

It was cool. I was surprised. The way I found out, I was upstairs watching film with the offensive line coach and one of our offensive coordinators. I felt my phone vibrating … and I saw I had a voicemail from Coach Harbaugh. I asked the coaches to pause the film and said, “Let me check this real quick.” It was a real short voicemail. He said, “Chase, this is Coach Harbaugh. I need to see you in my office.” Was like, “Oh, gawd, what did I do?” I tried to think, “Did I have parking tickets or what possible violation could it be?” I walked out of the film room and Coach Harbaugh … happened to be walking into his office at the same time. I looked at him with this look of uncertainty. He came up to me and shook my hand and kind of pulled me into a hug and said, “Congratulations. You’re a first-team All-American.” There was excitement, but a lot of it was just relief.