There is a difference between book smarts and football IQ.
And 49ers guard Zane Beadles possesses both.
At Utah, Beadles was a mechanical engineering major who earned a postgraduate scholarship and was named the Mountain West Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
This month, the seven-year NFL veteran has proven he’s still a quick study by showing a mastery of left guard, left tackle and center in the past three games.
Big deal? Beadles hadn’t played tackle since he was a rookie in 2010. And he’d never played center, at any level, even in practice, before injuries forced him to play the final 13 snaps at the position in a 41-13 loss at Atlanta on Sunday.