BearTalk

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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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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Former Cal quarterback Zach Maynard said half-brother and first-round NFL draft hopeful Keenan Allen is coping well, despite an ESPN report this week that his drug test at the combine was red-flagged.

“He’s not down at all,” Maynard said Wednesday after participating in the 49ers’ local pro day in Santa Clara. “I guess he was over-hydrated — that’s what they said about it. I don’t know what they’re going to do about it.”

Allen’s agent, J.T. Johnson, maintains the ESPN report is incorrect.

Twelve former Cal players participated in Wednesday’s event, but Allen was not among them. Neither were center Brian Schwenke and defensive back Marc Anthony,

Maynard said he’s not sure what happened in Allen’s situation, but suggested the test could have been faulty.

“It can happen to anybody. I tell him not to get down on himself because he had an amazing pro day,” Maynard said. “The guy’s a high-caliber athlete. He knows what he can do. There’s down times for everybody but he can pull himself out of it.”

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Keenan Allen won’t be there, but there will be a significant Cal presence Wednesday at the 49ers’ local pro day workout in Santa Clara.

Allen’s agent told me the wide receiver won’t be in the Bay Area on Wednesday.

Here’s a rundown of former Cal players expected to show their stuff to the 49ers: RB C.J. Anderson, CB Marc Anthony, DB Josh Hill, QB Zach Maynard, DL Kendrick Payne, C Brian Schwenke, RB Isi Sofele, FB Eric Stevens, G Matt Summers-Gavin, DT Aaron Tipoti, CB Steve Williams.

Clouds continue to gather over the NFL draft status of former Cal wide receiver Keenan Allen after ESPN.com reported Tuesday that his drug test at the combine was red-flagged.

Allen’s agent insists the story is wrong.

“We have received no notification about anything abnormal to his test. No team has requested a retest. Nobody,” said J.T. Johnson, adding that he first got wind of this when a reporter called him last Friday.

One thing is clear: Allen, once the consensus top prospect at his position, no longer is a sure thing to go in the draft’s first round on April 25.

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Former Cal star Keenan Allen was red-flagged for a drug test at the NFL combine in Indianapolis and ordered to undergo another test, according to a report by ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter.

Allen’s agent, J.T. Johnson, denied the wide receiver failed a drug test.

Results of Allen’s subsequent test are unknown.

Once rated the top wide receiver in this draft class, Allen’s stock has slipped some as he has rehabbed a knee injury he sustained late last season. He was clocked at 4.71 and 4.75 seconds for the 40-yard dash at a private workout he held for scouts last week in North Carolina.

He still is projected as a late first-round or early second-round pick on most NFL mock drafts.

Former Cal star Keenan Allen’s first 40-yard dash runs for NFL scouts on Tuesday produced less than awe-inspiring times. The question is: Will it matter much to NFL teams?

Allen was clocked in 4.71 and 4.75 seconds by Mike Mayock of the NFL Network, according to NFL.com, at Proehlific Park in Greensboro, N.C.  

The wide receiver held his own pro day workout for about 30 NFL scouts after bypassing both the NFL Combine and Cal’s Pro Day while recovering from a knee injury he suffered during the 2012 season and reinjured in January while training for the combine. Allen recently told the Sacramento Bee that he’s only about 85 percent back.

He also showed his route-running skills to scouts, with former NFL wideout Ricky Proehl — owner of the workout facility — throwing him passes. According to a report on SBNation, a scout from the Cincinnati Bengals remarked of Allen, “He did an awesome job.”

Allen has been a projected first-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, although his stock seemingly has slipped a bit from the upper to middle range of the first round to perhaps later.

The 2013 NFL Draft will take place April 25-27 at Radio Music City Hall in New York City.