Colin Kaepernick ... safety?

It's true. Before Kaepernick was seen as an avant-garde, big-armed, fleet-of-foot quarterback who would revolutionize the position, Kaepernick was asked to switch positions.

By the lone school that offered him a scholarship -- UNR.

So yeah, you'd have to figure that Kaepernick initially felt obliged to make the change out of some sense of loyalty. But he did not, and he went on to a record-setting college career in Reno and found himself selected in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers.

Kaepernick sticking it out at quarterback rather than switching positions was one of many anecdotes found in our ESPN.com NFL Nation survey that delved into that age-old question: From where do quarterbacks come?

While Kaepernick and Niners backups Blaine Gabbert and Josh Johnson filled in surveys for me -- Hall of Famer Steve Young also participated. I also spoke with former 49ers and Oakland Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett, as well as Tom Flores, the Raiders' first-ever quarterback before he won a pair of Super Bowls as their coach. In total, 128 current and former quarterbacks were polled for the project.

Among the questions asked had to do with schemes they ran in high school (Kaepernick, who prepped in Turlock, California at Pitman High, said he was in a Wing-T), their family background (Kaepernick was adopted at a young age, is the youngest of three children with a brother and sister and identifies himself as being African-American) and how much they spent on quarterback training before college (Kaepernick said more than $2,500).

Gabbert, who grew up in Ballwin, Missouri, and was the No. 10 overall pick of the 2011 draft out of Missouri, had a different experience coming up. He said he had more than 30 scholarship offers after playing "everything" in an offensive system at Parkay West High and was the oldest of three brothers.

Both Kaepernick and Gabbert, though, said they grew up in "upper-middle class" environments.

Johnson, meanwhile, said his Oakland upbringing was "lower-middle class" and he did not have a single scholarship offer coming out of Oakland Tech High School (he said his offense was "three yards and a cloud of dust") before landing at the University of San Diego, where he played for Jim Harbaugh. Johnson was picked in the fifth round of the 2008 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

All three quarterbacks said they came from two-parent households (90 percent of our respondents identified themselves as such) and Gabbert was among the 41.7 of those polled who were the oldest children in their respective families.

But while Kaepernick and Johnson both played three sports in high school (Kaepernick said he was an all-state nominee for football, basketball and baseball), Gabbert played two. And Johnson, unlike Kaepernick and Gabbert, did not participate in pre-college instructional camps.

Kaepernick and Johnson also contributed to California supplying the second-most number of quarterbacks in the league last year with 14. Texas led with 17.

And oh yeah, neither Gabbert nor Johnson were asked to switch positions ... unlike Kaepernick.