Kaepernick needs to bounce back after Saturday's loss

Colin Kaepernick's senior season is no longer a perfect, unblemished masterpiece.

It's as if somebody stuck some used bubblegum at the base of Michelangelo's David, smeared some peanut butter on the Mona Lisa or tossed some wet toilet paper up on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Kaepernick's senior year, we thought, was destined to be one glorious journey after another to the finish line. Picture Secretariat high-stepping his long legs to victory in each leg of the Triple Crown and finishing it off with a record 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes and a horseshoe of roses around his neck.

That was going to be Kaepernick's senior year. But the 6-foot-6 thoroughbred shockingly and suddenly threw a shoe halfway through the Nevada Wolf Pack's perfect season last Saturday night.

"I cost my team that game," said Kaepernick of the 27-21 loss to the Hawaii Warriors that left the Pack's Top 25 ranking and unbeaten season belly-up and floating off the coast of Honolulu. "That one is on me."

By now, you probably know the unsightly numbers.

Kaepernick turned the ball over more times against Hawaii than Pack men's basketball head coach David Carter would like to see from his point guard at Lawlor Events Center this year. The four turnovers on two lost fumbles and two interceptions are the most mistakes Kaepernick has been personally responsible for in one game in his entire four-year Wolf Pack career.

"That's the worst game he has ever played from a turnover standpoint," Pack coach Chris Ault said.

Forget peanut butter. It was as if somebody took a Sharpie and drew a Tom Selleck moustache on the Mona Lisa.

"There are errors and then there are critical errors that cost you a football game," Ault said. "Everybody makes errors. But those errors were critical errors. Those errors took points off the board."

Kaepernick says he cost his team its perfect season.

"In my eyes, I single-handedly lost this football game," he said Saturday night. "I fumbled going (into the end zone). That's seven points that wins the game.  I threw a pick going in. That's another seven. I threw another pick. That's another seven. That's 21 points we should have had."

The mistakes were, as Ault said, critical. No doubt. But they were also mistakes you'd never expect to see from a quarterback with as much game experience (now 41 starts) as Kaepernick. There had to be Pop Warner quarterbacks wincing and holding their eyes watching Kaepernick play against Hawaii.

He allowed linebacker Corey Paredes to knock the ball out of his hand as he was inches from crossing the goal line early in the third quarter. Had Kaepernick simply transferred the ball away from Paredes to his left hand, it would have been a Pack touchdown.

"He 'Hollywood-ed' it," Paredes told the Honolulu media after the game when describing how Kaepernick was holding the ball with one hand.

Kaepernick also rolled to his left to escape pressure and threw back across his body into the end zone on a third-and-10 pass from the Hawaii 14-yard line late in the second quarter. The pass, which should have been thrown off the island, was picked off in the end zone.

It was as if someone replaced the senior Kaepernick with a freshman version. Kaepernick, who recently went through a stretch of 105 passes in a row without being intercepted, now has been intercepted in four consecutive games and has thrown five interceptions over his last 71 passes.

"He was just wound too tight early in that game," Ault said. "There's no reason for it. You can't explain it."

Maybe it was the No. 19 ranking that caused the anxiousness. Maybe it was the pressure of the unbeaten season. Maybe it was all of the silly Heisman Trophy talk. Or maybe it was simply the fact that Hawaii was the first team this year to actually put any sort of consistent pressure on him.

Whatever the reason, Kaepernick was not, well, Kaepernick last Saturday night. Pack fans are accustomed to seeing Good Kap. We got Bad Kap against Hawaii. Another Good Kap, Bad Kap routine from one week to the next could kill this Pack season.

"I have to bounce back," Kaepernick said.

He will, Ault said.

"He had a bad day," the head coach said. "That's it."

Ault did his best to put a positive spin this week on what happened last Saturday. Yes, the TV cameras caught the frustration and disappointment on his face last Saturday night. But this week he had a season to salvage.

"If we just keep the ball on that last drive we score a touchdown, win the game 28-27 and everybody is talking about what a great comeback it was," said Ault, referring to Kaepernick's final turnover with 90 seconds to play just 10 yards from the end zone. "All you can ask for is a chance late in the fourth quarter to win the game. And we had that."

Ault is right.

If that final pass doesn't sail on Kaepernick, bounce off wide receiver Brandon Wimberly and into the waiting arms of Hawaii's Mana Silva, the Pack probably does beat Hawaii. The four turnovers by Bad Kap  would have been forgotten by the time the Pack's plane reached the mainland early Sunday morning. And the perfect dream season, the Top 25 ranking, the 'Hollywood-ed' script to Good Kap's senior year would still be alive and well.

But it didn't turn out that way. So now the Wolf Pack, which doesn't play again until Oct. 30 against Utah State, has two weeks to scrape the toilet paper off the ceiling and make sure one bad day doesn't turn into one bad finish to a dream season.

"For me, personally, I would rather just go right back out there this week and play our next game," said Kaepernick, who understandably can't wait to scrape the stench of Hawaii out of his uniform. "I hate to sit around on a loss like this for two weeks."

This is one jockey who isn't going to be afraid to get back on the horse after falling off. So, if you are worried about how Kaepernick is going to react to this loss, well, you can forget about it. Kaepernick is going to be just fine, thank you.

You already have to admire the way the young man has taken full responsibility for what happened.

"It starts with me," he said. "Four turnovers for a quarterback is unacceptable. When the quarterback commits four turnovers it's hard for an offense to put points on the board."

These 14 days between the Hawaii and Utah State games might be the most crucial in Kaepernick's career. The practices this week and next might be the toughest challenge he has ever had to face as the Pack's starting quarterback.

Kaepernick, after all, hasn't had to deal with a ton of adversity in his Pack career. Yes, he's lost big games before. But he rarely has played poorly in any of those losses. And almost all of the disappointing, gut-check type of losses in his career (to Boise and in a bowl game) have come near or at the end of the season.  There wasn't half a season left to worry about, like there is this year.

That's why this loss is different. Kaepernick's leadership abilities are now being put to the test, maybe for the first time in his career.

"That's something I have to do," said Kaepernick this week about being a true leader. "As a leader I have to show my teammates that I'm ready to go back to work and be ready to do whatever I need to do to help my team."

College football teams are as fragile as a 500-year-old work of art. The smallest smudge can transform it priceless to worthless. Kaepernick has seemingly done a fantastic job this week of refocusing and rededicating himself and his teammates.

Had Kaepernick not taken full responsibility for the Hawaii loss, had he come out to practice this week and hid from everyone, moped around and felt sorry for himself, he could have lost his teammates' confidence and trust forever.

Kaepernick didn't allow that to happen. Yes, Good Kap has kicked Bad Kap out of the interrogation room.

"I have to come out here and show my teammates that I'm still a leader of this team," he said.

There shouldn't have been a doubt.