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Football: Heavy Cal presence at 49ers pro day

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.

Posted on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Under: Alumni, Football, NFL Draft | 6 Comments »
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Football: Allen’s agent says story is not true

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.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Posted on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Under: Alumni, Football, NFL Draft | 2 Comments »
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Football: Keenan Allen red-flagged for drug test at combine, according to ESPN report

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.

Posted on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Under: Alumni, Football, NFL Draft | 9 Comments »
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Water polo: Csikos breaks career record

Senior Emily Csikos had two goals Saturday in a 14-7 win over Cal State Bakersfield to become Cal’s career scoring leader. Csikos now has 214 career goals.

A three-time All-America selection, Csikos leads Cal with 47 goals this season.

– Rugby: The Bears rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to beat Saint Mary’s 42-31 in front of a full house at Witter Field to close the regular season with a perfect 19-9 record.

Cal returns to action next in the Varsity Cup tournament, beginning Saturday at Annapolis, Md., against Notre Dame. The event runs through the May 4 championship at Provo, Utah.

Posted on Saturday, April 13th, 2013
Under: Rugby, Spring sports | No Comments »
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Football: Cal releases post-spring depth chart

Cal earlier this week released its post-spring practice depth chart, notable primarily for the battle that looms at quarterback when fall practice begins Aug. 5. No real news here, but worth revisiting.

New coach Sonny Dykes’ first spring workouts ended with three players still in the mix for the No. 1 quarterback spot — redshirt freshman Zach Kline, freshman Jared Goff and junior Austin Hinder.

Two other areas with questions entering the spring — the offensive line and cornerback– gained some clarity.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted on Friday, April 12th, 2013
Under: Football, Spring practice | 5 Comments »
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Football: How much is Aaron Rodgers worth?

Green Bay Packers teammate A.J. Hawk believes quarterback Aaron Rodgers may get a $1 billion contact — and the star linebacker says the 29-year-old ex-Cal star is worth it.

“Let’s be honest, all of us minions have nothing that we can offer Aaron that would even come close to anything that he would get,” Hawk told the NFL Network.

“He deserves every dime he’s going to get. He’s going to get a billion dollars, probably, so I’m OK with anything they want to give him, because he’s one of the best in the world and he deserves everything.”

Rodgers and the Packers are reportedly working on a new deal that league sources believe will earn him $25 million per season and make him the highest-paid player in NFL history.

Joe Flacco became the NFL’s highest-paid player last month when he signed a six-year, $120.6 million contract with the reigning champion Baltimore Ravens.

Rodgers is under contract through 2014, having signed a six-year, $65 million contract in October 2008. Rodgers’ base salary in 2013 is $9.25 million, while his 2014 deal is worth $10.5 million.

Rodgers passed for 4,295 yards and 39 touchdowns last season while leading the Packers to their fourth consecutive playoff appearance.

Posted on Friday, April 12th, 2013
Under: Alumni, Football | 4 Comments »
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Water polo: Csikos on cusp of scoring record

Senior Emily Csikos is about to become the all-time leading scorer in Cal women’s water polo history.

With her next goal — likely on Saturday at Cal State Bakersfield — Csikos will pass Coleette Glinkowski as the fifth-ranked Bears’ most prolific scorer.

Csikos and Glinkowski (1997-2000) current share the top spot with 212 goals.

A native of Calgary, Csikos moved to Montreal after high school graduation and and spent two years training with the Canadian National Team. She enrolled at Cal in the fall of 2008, although she continued to commute back to Canada to prep for a shot at the 2012 London Olympics.

Csikos was an immediate hit with the Bears, scoring 65 goals her freshman campaign. As a sophomore in 2010, Csikos found the net 69 times, fifth-most in school history. A year later, she was a finalist for the 2011 Peter J. Cutino Award, given to the top player in the country.

A three-time All-American, has scored 43 goals in 18 games this season.

She skipped the college season last spring as the Canadian team traveled to Italy for an Olympic qualifying tournament. Csikos and her national teammates missed out on a spot at the London Games, but she returned to Berkeley and will graduate this semester.

Then, it’s back to Montreal to resume training with the Canadian national team.

Posted on Friday, April 12th, 2013
Under: Spring sports | No Comments »
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Football: Allen runs sprints, routes for scouts

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.

 

Posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013
Under: Alumni, Football, NFL Draft | 13 Comments »
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Football: Keenan Allen set to run for scouts

Former Cal wide receiver Keenan Allen is scheduled to run Tuesday in his native Greensboro, N.C., with representatives from all 32 NFL teams in attendance 16 days before he’s expected to be drafted in the first round.

Allen said he probably was 85 percent recovered from his left knee injury, which he “tweaked” before the February scouting combine, but that he’d be back at full strength in a few weeks.

Allen suffered a strained posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee Oct. 27 against Utah. He missed the final three games of the season, his predraft workouts at the combine and Cal’s pro day.

Posted on Monday, April 8th, 2013
Under: Alumni, Football, NFL Draft | 8 Comments »
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Football: Marshawn Lynch spring game cameo trumped by 7-year-old cancer patient at Nebraska

Cal fans enjoyed a fun surprise a couple weeks ago when NFL star and Berkeley alum Marshawn Lynch showed up and ran for a touchdown in the Bears’ spring game.

Well, the season’s most memorable — and touching — spring game moment took place Saturday in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Jack Hoffman, a 7-year-old brain cancer patient from Atkinson, Neb., was given a Cornhuskers uniform and ran 69 yards for a touchdown in front of 60,174 fans at Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jmisv1Spck

Nebraska star running back Rex Burkhead befriended Hoffman last year and is captain of the support group known as “Team Jack.” A Nebraska football staff member came up with the idea of giving Hoffman a chance to be part of the spring game and the emotional moment became the No. 1 entry on ESPN’s “Top Plays” of the day segment.

“Jack is a fighter, a strong kid,” Burkhead said. “For Jack to get down here and do it, I know it made his day.”

“It was a lot of emotions right at once,” said Andy Hoffman, Jack’s dad. “Very emotional to see that. Husker fans have been so incredible to Jack and our family and especially to this cause.”

Andy Hoffman said his son is on a two-week break from a 60-week chemotherapy regimen and that he is “doing great.” A recent MRI at Children’s Hospital in Boston showed the tumor has shrunk substantially over the past year, according to the father.

Posted on Sunday, April 7th, 2013
Under: Football | 11 Comments »
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