Cal Football: Evan Weaver Named Butkus Award Semifinalist
To absolutely no one’s surprise Cal linebacker Evan Weaver was named one of 12 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, which goes to the nation’s top linebacker. The announcement of the semifinalists was made Monday.
Weaver leads the nation by a wide margin in tackles per game, averaging 15.9. The second-place tackler (David Woodward of Utah State) is more than two tackles per game behind at 13.3.
Weaver also leads the nation in total tackles with 127 and solo tackles with 69.
Only six times this season has an FBS player had 20 or more tackles in a game, and Weaver has three of them. No one else has done it more than once.
Weaver could break the FBS record for tackles per game and total tackles. The single-season record for tackles per game is 15.92, set by Boston College’s Luke Keuchly in 2011.
Weaver’s tackles breaks down to 15.875 per game, so he is marginally behind Keuchly’s pace.
The single-season record for total tackles in a season is 193 set by Lawrence Flugence of Texas Tech in 2002, so Weaver would need to average 16.5 tackles per game over the final four games to reach that total in 12 games.
(There have been higher numbers but the NCAA did not begin tracking tackles officially until 2000.)
Despite Cal’s 4-4 record heading into Saturday’s home game against Washington State, Weaver has a pretty good chance of winning the Butkus Award. He was named to the midseason All-American team by virtually every outlet that provided such a list.
Here is the list of Butkus semifinalists:
