49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman is exceedingly careful in group interviews and rarely gets excited or effusive in his answers.

But that changed when someone brought up the name of Kory Faulkner, the team’s rookie free agent quarterback. “Kory’s diligent as heck. He is a lot of fun to work with,” Roman gushed. “He’s the kind of guy that at some point in his career you can probably turn the keys over to him. And that’s a long ways off, but he definitely does some things that we like.”

High praise for an undrafted rookie from a small school, especially the “turn over the keys part,” with the suggestion being that Faulkner has it in him to be a franchise quarterback.

Roman was particularly impressed with Faulkner’s play while running for his life at Southern Illinois. “He had no offensive line in college,” Roman said. “But he can throw under duress let me tell you that. The first play here, I think we had really good protection and we said to him, ‘What’d you think of that? That was pretty neat, wasn’t it? You haven’t had that in a while.’ He had a big smile on his face.”

Faulkner appears to be way too rational for the NFL. While rookie free agents tend to believe the bluster that agents can spew about getting drafted, Faulkner realized he probably wasn’t going to get picked in last month’s draft. He also figured that the best way to develop his skills was with a head coach who had been a NFL quarterback for 14 seasons.

“I kind of knew, unless someone drafts me, I am going to go to the 49ers,” said Faulkner, who visited with Harbaugh in Ohio in April. “I wanted to be here. Just (wanted) the opportunity to learn from him.”

Harbaugh flew to Ohio to see his brother, John, receive an honor from Miami of Ohio University. He then stopped by Southern Illinois to see Faulkner, who stood out to him from the 40 to 50 quarterbacks the 49ers evaluated before the draft.

Harbaugh puts a high value on toughness, and with a patchwork and ineffective offensive line, Faulkner proved his toughness on a weekly basis as a Saluki.

“We realize that you do have to stay in the pocket and take a blow to get the first down,” Faulkner said. “But that’s how you gain the respect of your teammates. I definitely think it’s a trait that I have. It’s something that can’t be taught, you really got to do it. … You are in pain, but … You love why you got the first down.”

Somewhere, Jim Harbaugh is jumping up and down in glee.

Nevertheless, Faulkner is also realistic about his chances to make the team. He is contending with veterans Blaine Gabbert, Josh Johnson and McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who on the practice squad last year.

“I felt good about the situation and this is where I am supposed to be,” Faulkner said. “Regardless of how long it is, I am loving every day here and taking advantage of everything and having a blast.”

Here are some Faulkner highlights:

Twitter: @klynch49