Weaver a Consensus All-American
Cal senior inside linebacker Evan Weaver is a consensus first-team All-American who picked up his most recent honor Thursday with his first-team selection to the FWAA All-America Team. Weaver is Cal's first player to earn consensus first-team All-American honors since Daymeion Hughes and DeSean Jackson in 2006 as well as the first to pick up any first-team All-American recognition since Alex Mack in 2008.
The nation's leading tackler swept spots on all five of the teams considered to be a consensus All-American (AFCA, AP, FWAA, Sporting News, Walter Camp) and totaled 11 first-team All-American honors in all by adding selections from The Athletic, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, ESPN, USA Today and Yardbarker.
Below are notes on Weaver with an extended bio.
Evan Weaver, ILB, 6-3, 245, Sr., 3L, Spokane, WA (Gonzaga Prep)
• Consensus First-Team All-American (AFCA, AP, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, ESPN, FWAA, Sporting News, USA Today, Walter Camp, Yardbarker)
• Second-Team All-American (Sports Illustrated)
• Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (AP, Pac-12 Coaches)
• Butkus Award®, Lott IMPACT Trophy and Senior CLASS Award finalist
• Chuck Bednarik Award semifinalist
• Nearly unanimous first-team midseason All-American (AP, The Athletic, Athlon Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN, USA Today) and named 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 fourth in the Pac-12 and tied for 19th 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 set in 2018 by Weaver (159) and Jordan Kunaszyk (148)
• 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 stops both at Ole Miss and Utah
• 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 the Cardinal 34-yard line to lift Cal to its first Big Game victory since 2009