Kaepernick gets nod to start

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Tight end Delanie Walker arrives at work at 6 a.m. each day, and Colin Kaeper­nick always beats him to 49ers headquarters.

The quar­ter­back clocks in before most of his team­mates for that matter.

With that work ethic and stand­out per­for­mances, Kaeper­nick has earned him­self a third straight start at quar­ter­back for San Fran­cisco on Sun­day at St. Louis.

“Kap’s here before me, he’s here lift­ing weights,” Walker said.

Coach Jim Har­baugh made the announce­ment Wednes­day that Kaeper­nick got the nod over Alex Smith after the second-year pro led the NFC West-leading Nin­ers (8–2-1) to vic­to­ries in the past two games.

“The ratio­nale is we have two quar­ter­backs that we feel great about as a start­ing quar­ter­back,” Har-baugh said. “Both have earned it, both deserve it — Alex over a long period of time, Colin by virtue of the last three games. It tips the scales. Colin we believe has the hot hand. We’ll go with Colin. And we’ll go with Alex. They’re both our guys.”

Yes, Har­baugh is still leav­ing open every pos­si­bil­ity, say­ing it still could be a week-to-week deci­sion. All Kaeper­nick knows is he will begin Sunday’s game under center.

Har­baugh warned, “I wouldn’t assume anything.”

“To start talk­ing about spec­u­la­tion or every per­mu­ta­tion you could get into, we’re not going to spec­u­late on it,” Har­baugh said. “We’re wor­ried about every­thing and we fear nothing.”

The reign­ing NFL Coach of the Year told his play­ers on the field at some point dur­ing Wednes­day morning’s walk-through practice.

Kaeper­nick has com­pleted 48 of 74 passes for 680 yards and three touch­downs with one inter­cep­tion and was sacked six times. He has a 102.3 passer rating.

“I don’t know if it’s a hot hand. What­ever you want to call it. I’m just happy I get to go back out there,” Kaeper­nick said. “It’s a great chance to lead this team and show we’re a great team and we can go into the playoffs.”

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on Nov 30 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.