Former Nevada coach Chris Ault has watched Colin Kaepernick ascend from a largely overlooked high-school prospect to a revelation for the San Francisco 49ers.
Kaepernick is less than two weeks away from starting in Super Bowl XLVII, just two years after starring in Ault's Pistol offense at the college level. The quarterback and the NFL's scheme-of-the-moment have reached the game's highest level, and Ault believes Kaepernick is ready for the moment.
"There is no question about it: He'll be excited, as any young guy would be," Ault said Tuesday morning on 'NFL AM.' "But I'm going to tell you something about Kaep. He is the guy that I found, and you saw it last week: His patience and his poise to understand his role.
"If his role is to pull the ball and run it, he's going to do it and, if not, he'll hand it off. I think as the game progresses, the first couple series against Atlanta last week was rough, not only on him but on the Niner offense. But I think Coach (Jim) Harbaugh and that staff have just done a super job with this guy and they have given him things he can do and do well."
Kaepernick's rapid rise fuels this narrative. Before Harbaugh and the 49ers drafted their quarterback, Ault discovered Kaepernick before his senior year in high school. He was a work-in-progress back then.
"He came to my camp ... so I had him for two days, got to work with him, see his ability, his athleticism," Ault said. "From that point on, we didn't jump right on it, but he was a prospect. Then we somewhat watched him run the Wing-T at Pitman High School and he could move pretty well. The throwing was suspect at that time. I felt that (we were) going to recruit him as a quarterback and if he can't play that he's going to go to free safety or wide receiver."
Goes to show, you never know where the next Super Bowl quarterback -- or the offense he'll run -- might originate.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.