Harbaugh counting on Kaepernick
49ers coach hopes QB wins for both
SAN FRANCISCO In his only planned meeting with local reporters before Saturday’s playoff game against Green Bay, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was asked 23 questions over five minutes.
The average query and response consumed 13 seconds, hardly enough time for enlightenment. Eighteen of the 23 answers were more succinct than the questions, including the last one.
“You don’t like to reveal a whole lot, which you might have in common with your coach,” a reporter began. “Why is that?”
“The more that you reveal, the less of an advantage you have,” Kaepernick said. With that, he walked away.
Presuming Jim Harbaugh was not hidden behind Kaepernick like a ventriloquist with a hand up his jersey, the coach must have been pleased with his student’s performance. It was straight from Harbaugh’s public relations playbook.
Kaepernick is Harbaugh’s quarterback, moulded in Harbaugh’s stony persona. He was drafted for the purpose of eventually leading Harbaugh’s team and was promoted in November to carry Harbaugh’s immediate championship aspirations.
So the attention in these playoffs is on Kaepernick. But it is the man behind him, working the controls, who has the most at stake.
Harbaugh is perched at a peculiar turning point in his coaching career. He is popular in the Bay Area because he has won, not because he is liked, relying on victories instead of personality to build good will. Now, because of the lateseason switch to Kaepernick, and the rising expectations caused by his own success, Harbaugh’s popularity promises to be tested as never before.
“Two things sustain you as a coach,” said the former QB Trent Dilfer, an ESPN analyst who lives in the Bay Area. “Winning, No. 1. Likability, No. 2. Very few coaches have both. Jim does not have the consciousness of the public perception of him to have sustainability unless he wins. That’s just a fact. He has to win.”
So far, Harbaugh has won plenty. After four seasons of resurrect- ing Stanford into a powerhouse, in part behind QB Andrew Luck, Harbaugh moved triumphantly to the nearby 49ers in 2011.
His wealth of confidence and dash of intensity lifted San Francisco’s enviable roster to a 13-3 record. The 49ers came within one game of last year’s Super Bowl, losing to the Giants, 20-17, in overtime last January.
For the first time, he f aces the full weight of expectation. The 49ers feel built for a championship. And Harbaugh, in his final tinkering, benched the rejuvenated and widely admired Alex Smith for the unleashed potential of Kaepernick.
“If it all blows up on Saturday, that will take a lot of that good will out of the bank,” said Steve Young, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led San Francisco to its last Super Bowl, 18 years ago.
Before November, a key to the franchise’s renewal was Harbaugh’s rehabilitation of Smith. He was the first overall draft choice in 2005, tested and abandoned by a string of failing coaches. Harbaugh turned him into a trustworthy player of robotic efficiency.
On Oct. 29, Smith completed 18 of 19 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns in a victory over the Cardinals. The 49ers were 6-2. Two days later, Smith and Harbaugh chauffeured cars in the San Francisco Giants’ World Series victory parade. It was easy to imagine a Super Bowl parade come winter.
But Smith left the next game with a concussion, after throwing a touchdown pass through blurry vision. Kaepernick started the next game, against the Chicago Bears. His poise and pinpoint passing led the 49ers to a primetime blowout victory.
Smith recovered. He had the league’s highest passer rating. He had completed 25 of his previous 27 passes, for 304 yards and four touchdowns. He had led the 49ers to a 19-5 regular-season record under Harbaugh.
Harbaugh, somewhat clumsily over a couple of weeks, handed the job to Kaepernick.