Here is the transcript of my interview with Mike Martz on Wednesday morning.

Q: In 2005 you had heart trouble. What happened? (Martz missed the last 11 games of the season as Rams coach because of an infection on his mitral heart valve.)

A: What I have is a mitral valve prolapse. It's normal, and then every once in a while the valve doesn't do what it's supposed to do, doesn't close properly. What I had, the endocarditis, the bacteria came out of a sinus infection. It is unusual (getting endocarditis from a sinus infection). By far the more usual is from dental work. But I had an infection from a polyp in my nose. I was fortunate. They said afterward, 70 percent of the people don't make it, or you have a heart transplant or a valve replacement. So I was very very fortunate.

Q: You did not have a valve replacement?

A: No, since that time my checkups have been real clear. I'm clean and ready to go.

Q: When you were ill and had infection how did it feel?

A: The chest, at times, you could feel it. I wouldn't say it hurt. It was uncomfortable. What was really significant was the fatigue. And at night my heart would race. They said the bacteria collects on the valve and it gets heavy and the heart strains and it beats faster and it strains and strains. And so I couldn't sleep and yet I was really tired, just wore out all the time.

Q: Whenever I read about you it says you were Summa Cum Laude at Fresno State. It's even in the Niner press book. Why would you include that information?

A: This was in my bio when I was in college. I just never paid any attention to it. When I moved from job to job it just kind of stayed with me. It really is kind of embarrassing. Who cares? When you go into coaching, you try anything you can to fill out your resume. You're the first person that's ever brought it up. I just never thought about it. I'm not trying to perpetuate that. If you look back at my bio in the 70s it's probably there. It's just something that's sat there and I never took out. It's kind of obnoxious. I should get that out. It really is kind of ridiculous to have it in there.

Q: It's not ridiculous. But it's not a coaching credential. It's an academic credential.

A: When I was teaching in college -- I got started as teacher -- so that was the point.

Q: You're coming into an area that had Bill Walsh and that's a big deal. Is your offense sort of like his? Is it different? Is it radically different?

A: There's no question a good part of what we do is very similar just by structure, just by the nature of the routes. The way we teach it, I hope he would be pleased with. I was at many of his practices when I was a young coach in college at Fresno. He was such a stickler on details. Everything had to be perfect. If it wasn't he wouldn't put up with it. When I became the head coach at St. Louis I copied some of the structure of how he practiced and used it with the Rams. I never said that to anybody, but I did. I remembered a lot of things he set up in camp and how he set it up. He had an unbelievable way of projecting the outcome of things with the personnel they had. To me his biggest strength was he had a player and whatever that player was he had a vision of what that player was going to become. Doggone it, he was determined to get that player to that spot. That's a great coach. To me that's what we all try to emulate. We try to create some of the stress on the defense he did with some of those crossing patterns, the timing of the throws, the quickness of the quarterback, the efficiency of what we do. The down-the-field thing is a little different, although they did do that, certainly. We try to do a little bit more of it. The efficiency of the passing game, the fact that when you throw the ball to a back it's like handing him the ball, those kinds of things are consistent.

Q: Did you know Bill?

A: Yeah.

Q: Would you and he chat about football?

A: Oh, yeah. My very first discussion with him was very interesting. I was offensive coordinator at Fresno in 1979. I came over to Santa Clara University (where the 49ers trained in the preseason). I called ahead and asked if I could come to practice. They said, sure. Well, I had to wear a white 49ers T-shirt because he wanted to know who's who. There was no stone unturned. We went to practice. We could stay in a certain area. And they had a room set up for visitors after practice. He came in and sat on a couch. He didn't know me from Adam. He was so gracious about everything. I said, "Coach, how are you going to do?" I think they won three games that first year (actually two). For the next three years he rattled off, it was amazing, exactly what their records would be. He said, "I think we can do this." He didn't bat an eye. The next three years he had it all projected out. He planned the whole thing. It was just amazing. I was kind of stunned that he did that. Most coaches would say, "We'll be a .500 team. And he said, "We'll win three. And then we'll win this and then we'll win the Super Bowl. It's exactly the way it unfolded. He knew his personnel. He looked at his guys and knew it would take them this long to get where they needed to be. He could project talent and then he went about getting them there.

Q: I think Bill thought he knew more than anybody.

A: He probably did. You could call it anything you want. It is what it is. What are you going to do?

Q: Do you have two different personalities. You're very charming, polite, civilized in interviews but today I heard you say on the field, 'Get the (freaking) ball. Don't let it drop. (Martz yelled this at wide receiver Robert Ortiz.) I've heard in meetings with quarterbacks you can be quite direct and blunt. Are there two of you?

A: I'm in camp and this only happens in camp, by the way. I don't do this during the season - then you teach and you coach. But this is football at its highest level. You find a young man off the street that thinks he can make this team. You have got to put pressure on these guys as much as you can and make them deal with it. We don't have time, we only have three weeks. So if this guy has talent, and they all have talent, what you don't know is if they've got enough heart, strength in their character (he makes a fist) to deal with the stress of playing this game at a high level. Otherwise you have a guy who did really well in practice and you get in a game and he kind of disappears on you. I put as much pressure on them as I can and some of them you see them and they're resilient to it and you don't have to mess with them. (Rookie wide receiver) Josh Morgan's an example. I never mess with Josh. But some of these kids they come in here, the learning curve is very short here. We don't have a lot of time and they don't understand it. To get that full knowledge of what they can do - quarterbacks too - you've got to produce fire and then when camp is over I become the teacher I was raised to be. That's something I learned by necessity. You've got to find ways to put the pressure on them. It's not real comfortable for me to do but that's what you have to do.

Q: I think part of what's going on with quarterbacks is putting them under duress. I wish Alex Smith would tell someone to go (screw) himself, tell you to go (screw) yourself. It would be good for him.

A: I'm not sure that reaction is the right reaction. That part is not, but the toughness part, the assertiveness in the situation is what I'm looking for, what I'm always looking for. I'm not specifically talking about Alex. I'm talking about all the players. To get angry - emotion's not what I'm looking for. It's attitude. Emotion, go (screw) yourself, that's not important. I want them to be resilient. If they fail at something, they're resilient enough to bounce back and go out and do it again. Sometimes, it's a tough road. They have to fight their way through it. It's not an easy lesson when things have been going good your whole career - all these guys have been very successful - and the NFL is an elite league of the world. If you want to be the elite of the elite, then there's a certain mental toughness and attitude, if you will, that's required. Without that you can never achieve that level of excellence that you aspire to. It's not that emotion I'm looking for, it's the toughness. Joe Montana's a good example. Joe was a tough guy, assertive. He was very competitive. He wasn't intimidated by anything. He probably thought there wasn't anything he couldn't deal with. And that's what you're looking for. A lot of things can bombard a guy and make him second guess himself. What we're trying to do is make them think I can do this, get out of my way.