Colin Kaepernick almost became a safety or wide receiver at Nevada

Colin Kaepernick almost became a safety, says his old college coach. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Leading the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl has solidified his place among a group of promising young NFL quarterbacks, but there's no telling where Colin Kaepernick would be if his college coach had gone forward with a hunch that he should be playing safety or wide receiver.

Former Nevada coach Chris Ault said in a conversation with Sports Radio Interviews that was transcribed by DeadSpin.com that he wanted to convert Kapernick, who he said in college was "built like a fork," to free safety or possibly wide receiver if he wasn't going to cut it as an NCAA quarterback. Ault said there was nothing about Kaepernick that screamed "great athlete" when he was with the Wolf Pack.

Ault said it's "one of those times in your life that may never come again" when he watches his old player run the Pistol formation in the NFL, but said he still think Kaepernick would have been a great free safety:

"He could have been a great free safety, without question. And you know, his freshman redshirt year, guys, he was OK. There was nothing that told us he was a special athlete. He threw sidearm a little bit. He's a great pitcher and he had that little pitching motion from the sidearm. We had to try to push that thing up. And he ran the Wing T in high school, he didn't run for a bunch of yardage. So he was just a really good athlete, but boy would he have been a heck of a free safety."