BearTalk

One of the benefits of Cal finishing spring workouts sooner than any other team in the Pac-12 — way back on March 23 — was the opportunity for the coaching staff to focus early on recruiting the high school Class of 2014.

The Bears’ priorities are clear, coach Sonny Dykes said. He wants to sign five defensive backs and two running backs next February.

He identified running back as “a position where guys have a hard time staying healthy through the course of a year. Those guys get beat up. You’ve got to have a good stable of running backs.”

Cal is hot after Joe Mixon, a 6-foot, 195-pound four-star running back from Freedom HS in Oakley. But so is everyone else. Mixon has perhaps three dozen teams pursuing him, including Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas, Florida and most of the Pac-12.

He’d be huge for Dykes and the Bears, but obviously he’s by no means a lock for the home team. 

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Former Cal tailback C.J. Anderson, undrafted by the NFL this week, signed a free agent contract with the Denver Broncos, according to the team’s website.

Anderson, who came to Cal from Laney College, rushed for 1,135 yards in two seasons. He averaged 5.7 yards per carrry and scored a total of 14 touchdowns.

One year after trying the center position for the first time, Cal’s Brian Schwenke will get the chance to compete for the starting job with the Tennessee Titans.

Schwenke was the 10th player chosen in the fourth round on Day 3 of the NFL draft Saturday.

“They believe I can be the starting center next year — that’s what they told me,” Schwenke said on a media teleconference. “The position isn’t going to be handed to me. I have to earn it. I look forward to the challenge.”

Meanwhile, cornerback Steve Williams went 145th to the San Diego Chargers in the fifth round and cornerback Marc Anthony was chosen in the seven round by Super Bowl champion Baltimore with the 247th overall pick.

Their selection marked the first time Cal has had two corners picked in the same draft.

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Keenan Allen didn’t know quite what to say or how to feel.

After finally being taken by the San Diego Chargers with the 76th overall pick in the NFL draft — deep into the third round — the former Cal wide receiver’s emotions leaned more to relief than joy.

“I’m not sure what happened,” he said. “I was in the dark like you guys.”

Six months ago, Allen was being projected as the top receiver prospect in the draft, a sure first-rounder. He wound up as just the eighth wideout taken.

“Every time another receiver was taken, it was like another dagger,” said former Cal coach Jeff Tedford. “I could imagine how he felt because I was feeling it for him and with him. Knowing Keenan, this will just add fuel to the fire.”

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A year after Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck was the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, the Bay Area was shut out in Thursday’s first round.

No local player was expected to make the splash that Luck did when he was taken at the top of the draft by the Indianpolis Colts.

But at least two players — Cal wide receiver Keenan Allen and Stanford tight end Zach Ertz — figured to be in the mix to be selected late in the first round.

Neither was taken, marking the first time since 2008 that Bay Area schools failed to produce a first-round draft pick.

Allen tried to stay upbeat Thursday night, tweeting: Competitively disturbed!!! But it’s all good somebody gonna hit the lotto! #headshigh #noworries

Allen and Ertz figure to be chosen Friday, when the draft resumes at 3:30 p.m. with the second and third rounds. The 49ers have the second pick of the second round, giving coach Jim Harbaugh the chance to consider taking Ertz, a player he recruited to Stanford.

Allen, who became Cal’s career receptions leader in less than three full seasons, was pegged as the top receiver prospect in the nation last fall. Then he sprained the posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and not only missed the Bears’ final three games, but could not work out at the NFL combine in February.

His draft stock dipped as a result, and he also was the subject of an anonymously sourced ESPN report that his drug test at the combine was red-flagged. Allen’s agent refuted the report, explaining his client was only called back for a combine re-check of the ankle he broke more than a year ago.

Allen finally worked out for NFL scouts in North Carolina several weeks ago, impressing with his good hands and polished skills, but also clocking mediocre 40-yard dash times.

Three wideouts were picked in the first round, with St. Louis taking West Virginia’s Tavon Austin at No. 8 after a trade with Buffalo, and two more going in the late 20s.

Other local players who could be picked Friday include Cal center Brian Schwenke.

A year ago during spring practice at Cal, Brian Schwenke tried playing center for the first time in his football career.

This week, he expects to be drafted to play the position in the NFL.

“I’d never snapped a football. Now I feel more comfortable at center than I ever did at guard,” he said. “The way football works out, it’s what I’m more naturally built to do. Get that football out of there and go. It works for me.”

Schwenke, who started the two previous seasons at guard, was moved to center partly to benefit the team, partly because it could enhance his professional prospects.

Without the change, Schwenke admitted this week, “I probably wouldn’t be getting as much love as im getting.”

The 6-foot-3, 314-pound native of San Diego is getting enough love he anticipates being taken either Friday, when the second and third rounds are conducted, or Saturday, during the final four rounds.

The first round of the NFL draft will be held Thursday, beginning at 5 p.m.

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Former Cal star Scott Fujita knows how to make an exit.

Fujita announced his retirement from the NFL on Monday after first signing a one-day contract with the New Orleans Saints, the team he helped win Super Bowl XLIV.

And he did the final paperwork from one of the world’s most spectacular settings. Check it out:

Do you remember John Tuggle?

Bill Parcells will never forget him.

Tuggle played on Joe Kapp’s first team at Cal, a senior in the fall of 1982. He was the last player selected in the ’83 NFL draft, taken by Parcells, a rookie head coach with the New York Giants.

If you don’t mind fighting some emotions, check out ESPN’s latest 30 For 30 Short Film: The Irrelevant Giant, by Shaun Silva and Don Lepore. Very nice work.

If Tyre Ellison is a football household name, it’s only in his family’s San Francisco household.

He spent five seasons on the Cal football team and never earned a starting assignment. Until now, his biggest football moment may have been deflecting a two-point conversion pass to clinch his team’s win in the 2012 Cal spring game.

But on Wednesday afternoon, Ellison was among more than 50 recent college football seniors who showed off their stuff in front of the 49ers coaching staff at the club’s local pro day in Santa Clara.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Ellison said, “but it’s still football at the end of the day.”

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El Cerrito HS wideout Jalen Harvey talked to the Bay Area News Group’s Phil Jensen and explained he saw no reason to wait to make a commitment to Cal for 2014.

Here’s our story.