Harbaugh: The best QB will play for 49ers

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July 9, 2011MAIOCCO ARCHIVE
49ERS PAGE49ERS VIDEO
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Matt MaioccoCSNBayArea.com

The two most-talked about offseason additions to the 49ers were at the same locale Friday night.But there are rules in place about what they were allowed to discuss, and football could not be on the agenda.
Joe Santoro for the Nevada Appeal documented the evening at the Governor's Dinner in Carson City, Nev., in which coach Jim Harbaugh and rookie quarterback Colin Kaepernick were among the featured attendees.RELATED: Kaepernick advises UNR QBs to have confidence
As expected, Kaepernick, the record-setting Nevada quarterback, said he would not be satisfied to carry a clipboard his rookie season with the 49ers."I'm just going to lay it all on the line," Kaepernick said. "It's up to coach Harbaugh and his staff but I'm going to do all I can to get that starting spot."Kaepernick has a 49ers playbook, and veteran quarterback Alex Smith is guiding him through the learning process. Kaepernick said it would be nice if he could talk football with his coach, but team employees are prohibited from talking football with players during the lockout."There are times you just want to make sure you are making all the right reads and doing all the right things," Kaepernick said. "But that's where Alex has been a great help. He has answered all my questions and I'm just trying to learn as much as I can."This (the lockout) is not an ideal situation. But you just have to make the best of it."Santoro reported that Harbaugh and Kaepernick chatted briefly Friday evening before the dinner."We aren't going to find some grease board and sneak off to some back room at the Governor's Mansion and talk football," Harbaugh said. "We just said hello, shook hands and made small talk. We're not breaking any rules."Harbaugh withdrew from the celebrity golf tournament at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course next week -- just so he could go to work immediately if the lockout ends. Then, he can begin working with Kaepernick, whom the 49ers traded up in the second round to acquire."I can't wait to start training him," Harbaugh said of Kaepernick. "As soon as that lockout ends, we'll start working with him."All I want him to do is come in and compete and just get better each and everyday. If he does that, that will equal success for him. He's got the talent and the ability to be a starter in this league. But that's all up to him. He'll compete with Alex and the rest of our quarterbacks."The best guy will play. The guy who practices the best, the guy who plays the best will play. There won't be any games, there won't be any politics. We're going to throw the balls out there and let those guys have at it."

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