CHICAGO, Ill. – Cal senior inside linebacker Evan Weaver was announced Monday as a finalist for the 35th annual Butkus Award®. The nation's top six collegiate and six high school linebackers were revealed in the announcement made by the Butkus Foundation. The collegiate and prep winners will both be announced on or before December 10, while the winning at the professional level will be announced in early 2020.

The selections are handled by a panel of 51 coaches, recruiters, scouts and journalists who vote separately and confidentially using a 3-2-1 process, with a write-in option offered. Selectors and selection criteria are posted at thebutkusaward.com.

The Butkus Award® is presented by the Butkus Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization which advances health and wellness through special initiatives. This includes the I Play Clean® program encouraging athletes to play using their natural ability, and the Butkus Teams Heart™ program encouraging preventive heart scans and screenings among adults.

The Butkus Award® is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) which encompasses college football's most prestigious awards. The NFCAA's 25 awards have honored more than 800 since 1935.

Below are notes on Weaver with an extended bio available by clicking on his name.
 
Evan Weaver, ILB, 6-3, 245, Sr., 3L, Spokane, WA (Gonzaga Prep)
Senior (2019)
• A national honors candidate who is a finalist for the Butkus Award® and Senior CLASS Award, as well as a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award and Lott IMPACT Trophy
• 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 (164), total tackles per game (14.9), solo tackles (90) and solo tackles per game (8.2)
• Ranks second on Cal's all-time single-season tackles list and is within three of Hardy Nickerson's all-time record of 167 in 1985
• Has 32 more total tackles (second, Dele Harding of Illinois, 132) and 11 more solo tackles (second, Nate Landman, Colorado, 79) than anyone else in the FBS
• On pace for 194 tackles in a 13-game campaign, which would be one more than the current NCAA record for total tackles in a season of 193 set in 14 games by Lawrence Flugence of Texas Tech in 2002
• Has his first three career forced fumbles to co-lead the Pac-12 and rank tied for 10th nationally with an average of 0.27 per game while adding a career-high 10,0 tackles for loss (-36 yards) to rank tied for seventh in the Pac-12, 2.5 sacks (-19 yards), three pass breakups and a career-high five quarterback hurries
• Has combined with Kuony Deng (104 tackles) to form the nation's leading FBS duo with 268 tackles and 24.4 stops per game with the duo on a pace for 317 tackles in a 13-game campaign that is 10 more than Cal's current school record at 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 at 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 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 their own 34-yard line to lift Cal to its first Big Game victory over the Cardinal since 2009
Cal Career (2016 – Present)
• Has played in 47 of 48 possible games with 29 starts since his arrival at Cal in 2016 including a current streak of all 24 possible contests over the past two seasons
• Has posted career totals of 394 tackles, 23.0 tackles for loss (-88 yards), 8.5 sacks (-54 yards), two interceptions that he has returned for 47 yards and one touchdown on a career-long 37-yard return against Washington as a 2018 junior, three forced fumbles, 11 pass breakups, 13 passes defended and six quarterback hurries
• Has recorded a career-high 164 tackles in the first 11 games of his senior season that is tied for second on Cal's all-time list three behind school-record holder Hardy Nickerson's 167 in 1985 while he also had 159 stops as a 2018 junior that tie for third on the school's career list
• Cal's active career leader in tackles and fourth on the school's all-time list
• Ranks third in career tackles nationally among all active FBS players and first among Power 5 schools
• Has recorded double-digit tackles in 17 of his last 18 games and had a streak of 12 straight contests with double-digit tackles that included the final seven games of his junior season and first five contests of his 2019 senior campaign