Sports fodder for a Friday morning...Colin Kaepernick is getting a raw deal from the San Francisco 49ers. The former Nevada Wolf Pack quarterback has lost his starting job and is obviously being used as a scapegoat for the 49ers’ 2-6 start. Joe Flacco’s Baltimore Ravens and Philip Rivers’ San Diego Chargers are also both 2-6 and Matthew Stafford’s Detroit Lions are 1-7 but those three did not lose their starting jobs this week. Kaepernick’s 78.8 passing rating is better than Carolina’s Cam Newton, Denver’s Peyton Manning, Philadelphia’s Sam Bradford and Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck. But Newton, Manning, Luck and Bradford are still starters. Kaepernick hasn’t even been intercepted over his last four games. Is it his fault he has nobody to throw to or hand off to? Is it Kaepernick’s fault the 49ers offensive line can’t block anybody? The 49er who should have lost his job this week is head coach Jim Tomsula.
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There have been reports that Kaepernick has lost the confidence of his teammates, that he is moody, sullen and surly and doesn’t communicate well with anyone in the organization. Add that to the fact that the 49ers are losing and not scoring touchdowns and Kaepernick looks unprepared, unsure of himself and skittish. So it’s not like Kaepernick shouldn’t have seen the benching coming. But it sends the wrong message. The 49ers have now gone from Blame Kaepernick to Blaine Gabbert. But this wasn’t about Gabbert earning a start. It was only about getting Kaepernick off the field.
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This benching might be the best thing for Kaepernick’s career in the long run. Or it might signal the beginning of the end. It’s up to him. He needs to look in the mirror and figure out why he has become this gloomy, angry, standoffish character with the defensive, one-syllable answers to the media while wearing his headphones and baseball caps pulled down over his eyebrows. That is not the always friendly, always smiling Kaepernick, the ultimate leader and competitor who was adored by everybody, that we got to know at Nevada. He’s turned into a cartoon character, complete with immature off-the-field scandals and inconsistent play on the field. A week or two on the sidelines might be what he needs the most.
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Gabbert is everything Kaepernick has been fighting all his career. He’s a drop-back, conventional passer with limited athletic ability from a big-time school (Missouri) who was helped by playing in a pass-happy spread offense. Gabbert and Missouri beat Kaepernick and the Pack twice (2008, 2009). Gabbert got tons of college offers from big schools. Kaepernick got one offer.
Gabbert was drafted in the first round in 2011 while Kaepernick had to wait until the second round. Kaepernick has always used guys like Gabbert – overrated quarterbacks from big-time schools – as his motivation. After Gabbert and Missouri beat Kap and the Pack in 2009, Kaepernick’s career record as a starter was 11-13. After that game Kaepernick won 21 of his last 24 games. Gabbert was motivation for Kap in 2009 and he just might serve in that same capacity again.
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If the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors are smart they will offer Nevada Wolf Pack offensive coordinator Nick Rolovich their head coaching job. Hawaii finally fired Norm Chow after a disturbing 58-7 loss to Air Force at home last week, mercifully ending one of the worst coaching hires in recent college football history. Chow, a nice man but way past his peak as a coach, was 10-36 overall and had lost 25-of-29 Mountain West games. Rolovich, a former Hawaii quarterback and coach, would be perfect for the Rainbow Warriors. He could return the program to its glory days of the June Jones era and restore its run-and-shoot offense. One of two things will happen. Hawaii will be too dumb to offer Rolovich the job or Rolovich will be too dumb to accept it.
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It might be time for Rolovich to leave Nevada even if Hawaii finds someone else to take over its program. Rolovich’s Pack offense has been inconsistent at best – self destructive at worst – the last two-plus seasons since Ault retired. Rolo’s pistol, even with quarterback Cody Fajardo in 2013 and 2014, simply has not dominated the way Ault’s pistol used to. Rolovich and the pistol just might not be a great fit. The pistol under Rolovich is predictable, boring and unimaginative and has been explosive only when it shoots itself in the foot. Under Ault the pistol continued to evolve every year. Under Rolovich it has stagnated. Rolo’s pistol has beaten up bad teams and stumbled for the most part when there was something important (conference titles, bowl games and Fremont Cannon) on the line. It might just be that Rolovich is a guy stuck with running someone else’s offense. He could do what he wants to do (throw the ball 65 times a game?) at Hawaii or anywhere else where Ault didn’t coach.
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The Wolf Pack men’s basketball team showed enough promise in an exhibition victory over Dominican last Friday to prove that they will at least be interesting this year. Freshmen Cameron Oliver, Lindsey Drew and Juwann Anderson seem like nice additions to the holdovers from the David Carter era. Oliver is an A.J. West in training while Drew and Anderson already play like seniors. We still don’t know if anybody on the team can hit a shot past 10 feet out but we like the energy and confidence this team and their new coach (Eric Musselman) showed last Friday even when things weren’t going well. We’ll learn a bit more about the Pack tonight at Lawlor Events Center in another exhibition against Alaska-Fairbanks.
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Don’t be surprised if Jim Harbaugh’s name starts to be associated with the Indianapolis Colts. It’s no secret that head coach Chuck Pagano is on his way out in Indy. The Colts management, much like the way the 49ers did with Harbaugh last year, seem to be at odds with Pagano and are pushing him out. The Colts, like the 49ers last year, are vastly underachieving because they all know they are playing for a lame duck coach. Harbaugh would be a nice fit in Indy, where he could coach Andrew Luck, his former Stanford quarterback. Harbaugh, now at Michigan, belongs in the NFL. And, after all, it’s only a matter of time before Jittery Jim is involved in an ugly incident in Ann Arbor, you know, like strangling Ohio State coach Urban Meyer during the post-game handshake.
