GREELEY — Sean Rubalcaba left the Gold Helmet at home when he departed for college at Northern Colorado more than two years ago.
The shiny award he earned in 2011 from The Denver Post as the state’s best high school football player, scholar and citizen is sitting on a shelf at his family’s home in Grand Junction.
“I don’t trust myself enough to keep it up here,” Rubalcaba said. “If someone sees it, they might get sticky fingers.”
And Rubalcaba has too much on his plate to worry about safekeeping his prized possessions. After two seasons learning the Northern Colorado offense as an understudy, he has taken the reigns as the Bears’ starting quarterback and is being relied upon to help lead them out of a decade-long drought. UNC hasn’t had a winning season since 2003.
If his performance Saturday night in Las Vegas was any indication, UNC might be on its way to having better days. Led by Rubalcaba (16-of-21 passing for 189 yards) and a ball-hawking secondary that picked off four passes, the Bears fought toe-to-toe with Mountain West member UNLV before losing 13-12 to the Rebels.
Rubalcaba showed the poise that helped win him the starting QB job and got him voted a captain by teammates during spring practices.
“When you have guys who come from successful programs in high school, they get it,” said UNC coach Earnest Collins Jr. “You don’t have to have that, but you know that’s in him. When you’re the quarterback, you know that’s in him and he knows he has to win games by 20, win games by one, come from behind, all those things.”
In his final two seasons as the starting quarterback at Grand Junction, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Rubalcaba led the Tigers to a 21-3 record. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in both seasons. More important, he showed an ability to make the right play when it mattered most.
He displayed the same qualities during spring and August practices, winning the job to replace Seth Lobato by beating out former Valor Christian star Brock Berglund, who transferred to UNC in the spring.
“Rubes just brings so many options to the offense,” said senior wide receiver Dimitri Stimphil, who caught seven passes from Rubalcaba for 117 yards against UNLV. “He can throw, he can run. It’s a dual threat with him. The defensive schemes will change because of Rubes; he brings a lot to the table.”
Instituting a culture of leadership that dispenses with egos has been a challenge for Collins, who is 6-29 one game into his fourth season as the head coach at his alma mater.
In Rubalcaba, the coach doesn’t have the best athlete to ever step foot in Greeley. But he does have a humble and hungry leader.
“My mind-set every day is that I want to prove to myself, to the coaches and the team that I’m in that spot for a reason,” Rubalcaba said. “If some guy beats me out, then he should play. That’s how it should be. I just wanted to take the mind-set that I had to prove that I earned it.”
Nick Kosmider: 303-954-1516, nkosmider@denverpost.com or
