The word came from Nevada head coach Chris Ault this past week that Nevada senior quarterback Colin Kaepernick was selected by the prestigious Manning Passing Academy (MPA) to be part of the 2010 camp, which will be July 8-11 at Nichols State in Thibodaux, La.  SilverandBlueSports spoke with Kaepernick about the selection.

“It is a tremendous honor to be selected to the Manning Passing Academy,” Kaepernick said.  “I really appreciate Coach Ault for helping and supporting me. To be able to work with the Manning’s is a huge privilege.

“Basically, what I did in order to be considered for the camp is submit a package. Then in April, or early May, we found out that I was one of the quarterbacks selected.  I’m just really excited about it; any quarterback in college football would love to be part of the Manning Passing Academy, and honestly, it is the only camp I’m going to this summer.”

That in itself says a lot about the acclaim of the MPA.  In fact, the camp’s alumni list is beyond impressive. In the past two years alone, the MPA selected Matthew Stafford (Georgia) and Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), both of whom were selected as top picks in the 2009 and 2010 NFL Draft’s, respectively, as part of their camp staffers. Some of the top early names for the 2010 camp to drop on the west coast alone are Jake Locker (Washington), Andrew Luck (Stanford) and Kellen Moore (Boise State).

It is a camp for the best of the best. The full 2010 invite list should be available in the near future.

What makes the MPA such a great event?

It’s operated by the entire Manning family, including Cooper, Eli, Peyton and Archie.  Starting fifteen years ago, the academy is a four-day fundamentals-style based football camp, with a reported 10-1 camper-to-counselor ratio, that instructs high school and college quarterbacks how to play their position better. College players, college coaches and NFL coaches and players are among the approximately 100 counselors.

“It’s a passion for the Manning family. I’ll tell you that,” said Jeff “Hawk” Hawkins, who is heading in to his 10th season as director of football operations at the University of Oregon. “They are the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave. They are very involved and very focused on improving fundamentals.”

Acknowledged already as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time, Peyton Manning also spends time one-on-one helping the college quarterbacks at the camp. He holds coaching sessions with the counselors.

“[Manning] is giving them a heads up on things in their line of work,” Hawkins said. “But the big thing is giving [college quarterbacks] the knowledge to impart on the kids in camp. That’s a very serious part of what this is about.”

Meeting Pryor

One of the other college prospects that is expected to attend the camp is former USA Today National High School Player of the Year, Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who Kaepernick has recently been in touch with.

“Yeah, originally I got in touch with (Pryor) though his aunt,” Kaepernick said.  “I was working out with the guys here on campus and I guess she was doing something with the Journalism school here and she saw us.  It just kind of developed from there, and she was like, ‘you should give my nephew a call. He’s the quarterback at Ohio State.’

“I said, “you mean Terrelle Pryor?’ And it went from there.

“The (Manning Passing Academy) will be the first time we get to hang out.”

Kaepernick and Pryor have a lot in common as dual-threat college quarterbacks, and they are arguably the two best at both running and passing the ball.  Pryor is a dynamic talent, rushing for nearly 800 yards and 11 touchdowns, plus passing for over 2,000 yards and 18 touchdowns, to lead the Rose Bowl winning Buckeyes to another stellar season.  Kaepernick ran for 1,183 yards and 16 scores, and added over 2,000 passing yards and 20 touchdowns for the nation’s top rushing team.

While Kaepernick operates the Pistol offense exclusively, Pryor has experimented with the system at OSU. Due to the Pistol’s success, there’s little doubt that some of the conversations between Pryor and Kaepernick’ at the MPA will be based on the Nevada signal callers experience in Coach Ault’s offensive creation.  And as far as quarterback’s go, Kaepernick is definitely the guy you would want to learn from.  No player has taken more snaps in the Pistol offense than him.

“I’m looking forward to the camp, especially learning as much as I can from the tutors and the coaches,” Kaepernick stated. “But I’m excited about just hanging out there with all the guys too.”

The WR Core

We also asked Kaepernick about spring ball and the performance of the Nevada wide receivers.

“They are probably the most talented group, in both speed and ability, that I’ve had a chance to work with,” Kaepernick added. “We had Marko (Mitchell) and Mike (McCoy) my first two years, and then last year, we were really young.

“But during spring, it just seems like everything took off.  There is a lot of depth, and I think the competition has helped raise their play too.  You know, it used to be one of those things where guys would say, ‘Let me make this catch.’  But now, it is more like, “Let me make this play.’  They’ll catch the ball, so that’s not the issue.  It is more about each guy wanting to make plays after the catch.”

Kaepernick, who missed last spring after suffering an injury in the Humanitarian Bowl, was also able work on some of his personal goals as well.

“I really wanted to work on my timing with the receivers this spring,” Kaepernick added. “Like I said, we have a lot of talented receivers, but we really needed the spring to get that timing down. Plus, it allowed me to let the guys know where I wanted them to be on certain plays.”