Weaver Named 1st Team AP All-American

BERKELEY – Cal senior inside linebacker Evan Weaver has earned multiple first-team All-American honors in the last week including today’s announcement of the AP All-American team and a spot on the prestigious Walter Camp Football All-American team announced Thursday. The AP and Walter Camp All-American teams are two of five on a list that are recognized to be a consensus All-American with the others (American Football Coaches Association, Football Writers Association, Sporting News) yet to be released. Players on at least three of the five teams are considered to be consensus All-Americans. Weaver has already been named a first-team All-American by Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, The Athletic and USA Today, while Sports Illustrated had Weaver on its second team.

Weaver is the first Cal player to earn first-team All-American honors since Alex Mack in 2008. He also picked up the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors and was a finalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy and Senior CLASS Award. He was also a finalist for the Butkus Award given to the nation's best linebacker.

Below are notes on Weaver with an extended bio that also includes career information available by clicking on his name.
 
Evan Weaver, ILB, 6-3, 245, Sr., 3L, Spokane, WA (Gonzaga Prep)
• First-Team All-American (American Football Coaches Association, Associated Press, Football Writers Association, Sporting News, Walter Camp)
• Second-team All-American (Sports Illustrated)
• Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year
• Finalist for the Butkus Award®, Lott IMPACT Trophy and Senior CLASS Award
• Semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award
• A nearly unanimous first-team midseason All-American (Associated Press, Athlon Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN, The Athletic, USA Today) and named the midseason's leading candidate for Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors and a first-team All-Pac-12 selection by the Bay Area News Group
• Has accepted an invitation to play in the 2020 Senior Bowl
• Serving as one of three team season captains
• Leads the nation in total tackles (school-record and career-high 173), total tackles per game (14.4), solo tackles (95) and solo tackles per game (7.9)
• Has 26 more total tackles (second, Dele Harding of Illinois, 147) and 12 more solo tackles (second, Nate Landman, Colorado, 83) than anyone else in the FBS
• Within 20 tackles of the all-time NCAA single-season tackle record of 193 set in 14 games by Lawrence Flugence of Texas Tech in 2002
• Has his first three career forced fumbles and ranks tied for second in the Pac-12 and tied for 20th nationally with an average of 0.25 per game while adding a career-high 10.0 tackles for loss (-36 yards), 2.5 sacks (-19 yards), three pass breakups and a career-high five quarterback hurries
• Has combined with Kuony Deng (111 tackles) to form the nation's leading FBS duo with 284 tackles that is within 23 tackles of Cal's current school record of 307 by Weaver (159) and Jordan Kunaszyk (148) in 2018
• Has twice equaled Kunaszyk for the most tackles in a single game in Cal's recorded history when he had a career-high-tying 22 at Ole Miss and Utah, adding 0.5 tackles for loss (-2 yards), 0.5 sacks (-2 yards) and a career-high two quarterback hurries against the Rebels while he also had 1.0 tackle for loss (-2 yards) and a career-high-tying one forced fumble against the Utes
• Has twice helped secure victories by making stops on the opponents' final offensive play, stuffing Ole Miss' John Rhys Plumlee on a QB sneak from the Cal 1-yard line as time expired to preserve the first Pac-12 victory on the road at an SEC school since 2010 and then combining with Cameron Goode to stop Stanford's Cameron Scarlett on fourth down and one from its' own 34-yard line to lift Cal to its first Big Game victory since 2009