During his recruiting process, Wagner High School four-star offensive lineman Spencer Burford had multiple Power Five offers at his disposal. In the current age of college football, one large NIL deal would’ve likely had him packing his bags and leaving San Antonio. Burford, however, comes from an era of college football that seems like a distant memory, yet was less than a decade ago. When Burford was an incoming freshman in 2018, players were still being punished for making any-sort of revenue related to their collegiate career, increasing the importance of player-coach relationships. After deep discussion, the superstar guard was sold on a vision by former UTSA coach Frank Wilson, but more importantly, Burford was sold on the opportunity to build something great in his hometown.

“I was just trying to build something up in my city,” Burford said. “Coach Wilson played a huge part in getting me over here. I had my eyes set elsewhere. He showed me the vision that he wanted to plan, as far as what he thought the program could be. It is steadily blossoming. It is steadily moving in the right direction, as far as what the team has going on right now.

“That’s really what got me to come here. We have the seventh largest city in the country, and football, being that the program is so young, I wanted to be something that could start it. Coach [Jeff] Traylor came in and built off that.”

Despite the Roadrunners failing to secure a winning season under Wilson, his recruits built the foundation of the program’s glory days. Frank Harris, Rashad Wisdom, Zakhari Franklin, Joshua Cephus, Sincere McCormick and Burford all signed with UTSA under Wilson. Making the transition between coaches was a leap of faith for Burford, yet one he was willing to endure.

Story continues below advertisement

“It was actually kind of weird,” he explained. “When they came in, it was during COVID. We didn’t have a spring ball with them or nothing like that. Really it was just trusting, trusting that [Traylor] was a man of his word — which he was. He was a player’s coach too. He listened to his players; if his players weren’t feeling good, he wasn’t going [to play them]. He established the culture up there.”

Wilson’s vision did not take long to come to fruition; it just did not occur during his tenure. In Burford’s final year as a Roadrunner, the program won its first conference title.

“Anything being the first is a major accomplishment. Let alone coming in and winning an accomplishment such as that,” Burford explained. “I felt like they gave the university its boost after we won that championship, even other sports started blossoming and winning. I feel like we kind of got it started, just lighting that match — it became contagious — everyone started feeding off that energy.”

Winning that first Conference USA championship put UTSA on the map, and while it did wonders for the program’s brand, it brought eyes upon its talent. Burford had his “eyes set on LSU or [The University of Oklahoma]” but ultimately chose to stay with the Roadrunners — a gamble that paid off when he got the phone call from the San Francisco 49ers on draft night.

“It was lit, I’m not going to lie. The draft is what it was. You sit there. You wait patiently all day making sure you don’t get too antsy. You try to stay even-keeled,” Burford said. “I just put it in God’s hands; whatever was going to happen was going to happen. Funny thing is, I had talked to the 49ers a week and a half before the draft with my top-30 visit, and they had told me they were coming to get me. They were people of their word. They told me what was going to happen, and it happened.”

The 2022 NFL Draft was a special one for the Roadrunners. Along with Burford, former UTSA defensive back Tariq Woolen was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round. The Seahawks and the 49ers share the NFC West, and as the two teams battled, the two former ‘Runners’ relationship was strengthened.

“That’s my dog,” Burford said of Woolen. “Riq is like my brother. I just got done talking to Riq earlier. With all his success, I’m happy for Riq. Him making that transition from wide receiver to cornerback within that short amount of time and then having the success that he’s had, it couldn’t have came at a better time. I’m proud of him.”

NCAA football and the NFL are two different worlds. The distance between the premiere conferences and C-USA might be even farther, so when Burford started in the 2023 Super Bowl, it was an experience he described as “second-to-none.”

“The weight of the situation, the pressure that comes with it, everything counts, everything matters,” Burford explained. “From the smallest of details, what you eat at breakfast to what you do before you go to sleep at night, everything in between there matters.”

Burford got a taste of the harsh reality of the game’s biggest stage: There can only be one winner. His 49ers fell to the dynastic Kansas City Chiefs, and although he had a stellar performance in the loss, one missed block in overtime led to some unfair criticism from teammates and fans alike.

“I was depressed,” Burford recalled. “That was my first true sign of depression. My dad had passed. I had a little bit of depression then, but my first true experience with it was when we lost to KC. I didn’t eat for days. I was off social media. I couldn’t talk to nobody. I just played my game, and that was it. I didn’t have the energy to do anything else. You don’t know how many [opportunities] you’re going to have again so you have to capitalize on moments like that. Hopefully, God gives us another opportunity, and hopefully, we come out on top.”

Although it was a tough experience for Burford, it is one he has built off of. Life lessons have been taught through his collegiate and professional career and will continue to carry him going forward.

“The highs and lows of my career have taught me everything in between,” he said. “How to manage it at the top, and how to manage it at the bottom. You see how people treat you when they don’t need you. You see how people treat you when they do need you, and just learning the intricacies as far as how the league works and manages in the background. I was in the fire for the first two years. I’m getting thrown into a Super Bowl contending team starting as a rookie. So, it’s a lot of things that come in between that. It was a blessing and an experience. I wouldn’t change it for nothing, good or bad. I wouldn’t change it for nothing.”

Burford will play in his fourth season with the 49ers in 2025. As he develops under coach Kyle Shanahan, he will also aim to solidify his spot on one of the deepest rosters in the NFL. Regardless if he remains in San Francisco long-term, his career is a testament to the spoils of loyalty and resilience, and wherever he goes, Burford will continue to represent what it means to be a Roadrunner.