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49ers RB Isaac Guerendo Explains Why He is Well Suited to be a Backup

For me, it gives me a leg up in the sense of what are these guys going to do when they aren't the starter?

Grant Cohn

Nov 9, 2023; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals running back Isaac Guerendo (23) runs
Nov 9, 2023; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals running back Isaac Guerendo (23) runs / Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
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SANTA CLARA -- 49ers rookie running back Isaac Guerendo spoke to the media on Thursday. Here's what he said.

Q: How many games did you start in college?

GUERENDO: "One."

Q: How do you explain that?

GUERENDO: "I played with a lot of great backs. Going to this level, I think it's something that helps me, because a lot of these guys have been the featured guy since they were in high school. For me, it gives me a leg up in the sense of what are these guys going to do when they aren't the starter? How are they going to handle that? How are they going to move forward with that given the fact that I've already been through it plenty of times. It's not going to change my mind set."

Q: Were you mainly a wide receiver in high school?

GUERENDO: "Yeah, that was all I played, receiver."

Q: What led to the transition to running back?

GUERENDO: "Went to Wisconsin at first, and I talked to the offensive coordinator a lot when I was transitioning there, and he gave me a Jonathan Taylor comparison. You can't complain about that. Also being a part of an offense where they didn't throw the ball a lot when I was there. He just saw more opportunity if I were to switch to running back. The amount of great running backs who came out of that school was a lot, so I saw a big opportunity for me. I was really happy with the switch and I've been there ever since."

Q: Did you always have NFL aspirations, or was there a part of you that thought you might go into track since you were a state track champ?

GUERENDO: "That was definitely a thought. Obviously I always wanted to play in the NFL, but there came a point when I was younger, I wasn't highly recruited. So I thought maybe track was the way to go, but fortunately I was given a few opportunities, I took those and ran with them."

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Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.