In three NFL seasons, 49ers running back Carlos Hyde has had three different coaches. As 2016 comes to a conclusion, does Hyde believe he’s playing for coach Chip Kelly’s job?
“I don’t really worry about anybody else’s job. I just worry about my job and that’s playing running back here,” Hyde said on Thursday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio and NBCSN. “So I’m just trying to keep my job.”
Hyde, who played college football at Ohio State, was drafted on the watch of Jim Harbaugh, now the head coach at Michigan. Asked about whether he thinks Harbaugh will return to the NFL, Hyde said with a laugh, “He can stay at Michigan. You know coach [Urban] Meyer has beaten him twice in a row so he can stay there. That’s the only game that matters anyway so he can stay there.”
I then asked Hyde to share a story about Harbaugh. Here’s what Hyde said: “Whenever there was a player’s birthday he would give you a framed picture from a game that you played in and a card. I thought that was cool because I’m all the way in California I don’t have family out here. So when it’s your birthday you don’t really have family there to celebrate your birthday with you but he would get with you at the end of practice, announce that it was your birthday, give you a framed picture and a card and I thought that was cool.”
“Cool” is a word used rarely regarding Harbaugh, who has a firmly-established reputation for intensity. Is he too intense?
“I came from a program where there was hard coaching,” Hyde said. “So if the coach was intense, with Coach Harbaugh being intense, I didn’t notice because I’m used to a coach being intense. You know being on the players, not letting people slack off, being on top of everybody. I’m used to that. That’s how Coach Meyer was at Ohio State.”
Which raises an obvious question: Should Meyer leave Ohio State for the NFL?
“Coach Meyer is good where he’s at,” the former Buckeye said. “No need to come to the NFL. He’s done a great job at Ohio State and he’s done a hell of a job. So he can just stay where he’s at.”
Hyde concluded by saying he’d like to stay where he’s at, and in our view the 49ers should want him. With more changes possibly coming to the team, however, Hyde could eventually find himself doing what he thinks Harbaugh and Meyer shouldn’t do — searching the NFL for potential employment.