Keenan Allen, Marc Anthony Earn Starting Roles At Wide Receiver And Cornerback

One expected result and one not-so-expected result—Cal will have two newcomers dressing up on the field on Saturday.

Tedford did jump the gun a little when he confirmed the obvious: True freshman Keenan Allen will start at one wide receiver opposite Marvin Jones, and sophomore Marc Anthony seems to have held off promising freshman Steve Williams to earn the starting left-cornerback job.

“Marc Anthony has had one of the most solid camps,” Tedford said. “He made spectacular plays, he did a good job of tackling in the open field and he did a good job on pass defense.”

Allen was expected to do great things as a Golden Bear, but I doubt any of us thought he’d win the starting job this decisively. Still there were plenty of indications he was ready to start from the summer reports, and now he’ll be lining up next to Marvin Jones.

Anthony is a little bit more surprising, especially with the emergence of Steve Williams, but it seems Anthony’s familiarity with the system and his strong performances through spring and fall practices have carried the weight.