At the barest minimum, the 49ers’ San Jose State interlude will stand as an odd, ad hoc break from coaches, whistles and NFL business as usual.

It’s when Alex Smith found his voice, Josh Morgan carpooled with Kevin Jurovich, Justin Smith took care of the defense, and Colin Kaepernick worked into the mix.

It’s when famous millionaire players parked their cars, carried their own gear and streamed on and off campus barely noticed among a mix of Spartans athletes and summer staffers.

“I’m not comfortable with this at all,” Morgan said with a laugh during a break in this week’s “Camp Alex II” sessions.

“I’m comfortable being around my teammates, but you don’t ever want to get comfortable with something that’s not your home. I’m just anxious to get back to the facility and get back to my locker.”

That might happen soon, if the owners and players end this long lockout in time for a full training camp.

And there is no question the 20 or so 49ers mostly offensive-side players on hand are eager to get to work in real practices with real coaches.

“The competition — that’s what I miss most, just the competition level of everything,” Morgan said.

After the conclusion of this second minicamp, they will have taken it about as far as they can go with their copies of new coach Jim Harbaugh’s offensive playbook.

(The defensive work is less intense because the players don’t have new coordinator Vic Fangio’s

playbook. Because of that and because of injury concerns, the offense and defense aren’t lining up against each other at San Jose State.)

But at its highest potential, the SJSU sessions will be remembered as a moment when Alex Smith and other core offensive players turned lockout befuddlement into a team-building exercise.

“I think it’s going to be interesting to see how it goes into the season,” tackle Joe Staley said, “the dynamics of the camaraderie we’ve had this offseason and being the coaches ourselves.”

Anything could have happened during the lockout. Anything: apathy, disintegration, silence.

Now, the significance of the classroom work and practices is limited because these players have never worked under Harbaugh’s system or coaching staff, so they’re all just guessing right now.

But it’s still better than doing nothing and building no chemistry.

“If there’s anything really positive about this, it’s forcing us to step up as leaders,” said Staley, who is housing draftee Mike Person during the SJSU sessions. “And coordinating stuff like this and really staying on top of each other. We don’t have the coaches obviously to kind of baby-sit us. It’s more of a professional atmosphere, I guess.”

One development: Relationships are unfolding and being hammered out naturally, without coaching supervision. One high-profile example: Smith and Michael Crabtree, who exchanged cryptic public comments about each other a few weeks ago but seem fine together now.

In a KNBR interview recently, Harbaugh approvingly called the back-and-forth a “tussle” that was ironed out between Smith and Crabtree themselves.

Of course, it’s not just about tussles; in this loose summer-school atmosphere, teammates are getting to know each other beyond the usual NFL brief cordialities.

“You get to see a different side of them, because you get to spend more time with them,” said Morgan, who has learned about Jurovich’s exploits as a Spartans star receiver.

“It’s not just in the locker room. We can’t just go into the lunch room and eat lunch, you know? You end up being forced to have to go out to eat with them and things like that “…

“Sometimes you get to meet their family. You just get to open up and do a lot of the bonding part of football you don’t really get the chance to do.”

Naturally, none of this means the 49ers will be a cohesive team in 2011. Or a good one. They have to make plays, whether or not they like each other or practiced hard in June.

But they’re doing what they can. When they look back on this period, I don’t think the 49ers will consider it a lost moment. It’s a step forward.

What will Morgan tell the coaches when the players report back to 49ers headquarters?

“OK, you don’t have to teach me much because I’ve been learning,” Morgan said, “and Camp Alex has been a success.”

That’s not everything. But it’s more than anyone, including Harbaugh, probably could have expected.

Read Tim Kawakami’s Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami. Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5442.

At the barest minimum, the 49ers’ San Jose State interlude will stand as an odd, ad hoc break from coaches, whistles and NFL business as usual.

It’s when Alex Smith found his voice, Josh Morgan carpooled with Kevin Jurovich, Justin Smith took care of the defense, and Colin Kaepernick worked into the mix.

It’s when famous millionaire players parked their cars, carried their own gear and streamed on and off campus barely noticed among a mix of Spartans athletes and summer staffers.

“I’m not comfortable with this at all,” Morgan said with a laugh during a break in this week’s “Camp Alex II” sessions.

“I’m comfortable being around my teammates, but you don’t ever want to get comfortable with something that’s not your home. I’m just anxious to get back to the facility and get back to my locker.”

That might happen soon, if the owners and players end this long lockout in time for a full training camp.

And there is no question the 20 or so 49ers mostly offensive-side players on hand are eager to get to work in real practices with real coaches.

“The competition — that’s what I miss most, just the competition level of everything,” Morgan said.

After the conclusion of this second minicamp, they will have taken it about as far as they can go with their copies of new coach Jim Harbaugh’s offensive playbook.

(The defensive work is less intense because the players don’t have new coordinator Vic Fangio’s

playbook. Because of that and because of injury concerns, the offense and defense aren’t lining up against each other at San Jose State.)

But at its highest potential, the SJSU sessions will be remembered as a moment when Alex Smith and other core offensive players turned lockout befuddlement into a team-building exercise.

“I think it’s going to be interesting to see how it goes into the season,” tackle Joe Staley said, “the dynamics of the camaraderie we’ve had this offseason and being the coaches ourselves.”

Anything could have happened during the lockout. Anything: apathy, disintegration, silence.

Now, the significance of the classroom work and practices is limited because these players have never worked under Harbaugh’s system or coaching staff, so they’re all just guessing right now.

But it’s still better than doing nothing and building no chemistry.

“If there’s anything really positive about this, it’s forcing us to step up as leaders,” said Staley, who is housing draftee Mike Person during the SJSU sessions. “And coordinating stuff like this and really staying on top of each other. We don’t have the coaches obviously to kind of baby-sit us. It’s more of a professional atmosphere, I guess.”

One development: Relationships are unfolding and being hammered out naturally, without coaching supervision. One high-profile example: Smith and Michael Crabtree, who exchanged cryptic public comments about each other a few weeks ago but seem fine together now.

In a KNBR interview recently, Harbaugh approvingly called the back-and-forth a “tussle” that was ironed out between Smith and Crabtree themselves.

Of course, it’s not just about tussles; in this loose summer-school atmosphere, teammates are getting to know each other beyond the usual NFL brief cordialities.

“You get to see a different side of them, because you get to spend more time with them,” said Morgan, who has learned about Jurovich’s exploits as a Spartans star receiver.

“It’s not just in the locker room. We can’t just go into the lunch room and eat lunch, you know? You end up being forced to have to go out to eat with them and things like that “…

“Sometimes you get to meet their family. You just get to open up and do a lot of the bonding part of football you don’t really get the chance to do.”

Naturally, none of this means the 49ers will be a cohesive team in 2011. Or a good one. They have to make plays, whether or not they like each other or practiced hard in June.

But they’re doing what they can. When they look back on this period, I don’t think the 49ers will consider it a lost moment. It’s a step forward.

What will Morgan tell the coaches when the players report back to 49ers headquarters?

“OK, you don’t have to teach me much because I’ve been learning,” Morgan said, “and Camp Alex has been a success.”

That’s not everything. But it’s more than anyone, including Harbaugh, probably could have expected.

Read Tim Kawakami’s Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami. Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5442.