San Francisco coach Mike Singletary touched on a variety of topics during his 10-minute conference call with Seattle-area media this morning.

Among them, he spoke about how difficult it was to release running back Michael Robinson, who signed this week with the Seahawks. Robinson was drafted in the fourth round out of Penn State by the 49ers in 2006 and became a special-teams standout over the past three seasons.

"He's one of the classiest individuals you'd ever want to meet," Singletary said. "He exemplifies everything that you'd want on a great football team. His attitude is superb. He's a guy that I felt on our football team going forward, we felt it was better to move in the direction that we moved simply because we could not find a way to get him on the field more on the offensive side of the ball.

"For us, Mike is a tremendous loss and I explained that to him. (I) love Mike. He's somebody that you always want around you, quality people like him."

Singletary said he developed a relationship with Pete Carroll when the Seahawks coach was at USC. Singletary "spent some time" with the Trojans for a couple of years and learned Carroll's system because he considered coaching in college.

"It was a possibility and I thought there was no one better to talk to than Pete Carroll," Singletary said. "He had a tremendous program there and built an outstanding organization there."

Singletary also talked about the Seahawks and last year's 20-17 defeat at Qwest Field.

--- (Did you get away from the run in last year's loss to Seattle?) "There were a lot of things that happened that day. Frank Gore was a part of it, but there were too many other outside factors that (played into) last year's game. They did a good job. They made plays and we didn't. And in the final analysis that's what it came down to."

--- (On this year's Seahawks team) "There's a lot going on in terms of the personnel changes. It's very important for us that we don't get caught up in the changes. That we just make sure we continue to be consistent here and do the best that we can to matchup correctly and play the best that we can play."

--- (How do you manage the high expectations) "The only expectation we should have is go out everyday and earn the right to be the best that we can be."

--- (On the Vernon Davis-Michael Crabtree incident) "Everything that we do has to do with respect. I think it's very important that we treat each other the way we want to be treated and that was really the bottom line."

--- (On former O'Dea High star Taylor Mays) "He's a work in progress. He continues to work hard. I'm very thankful that we have him. He's been a blessing. He's a guy that studies really hard and works really hard and has really taken to the coaching. Has done everything that we've asked him to do. He just continues to get better."