Davis, Kunaszyk, Mekari, and Weaver named to Pro Football Focus Midseason All-Pac-12 team

We’re halfway through the college-football season and we’ve got some great honors for some of our California Golden Bears.

Pro Football Focus uses their own algorithm to quantitatively grade players’ performances and have released their picks for the Midseason All-Pac-12 teams. Although their fancy mathematics aren’t disclosed, it does seem a little bit more credible at first glance than other systems.

Continuing the theme that Wilcox has successfully performed a 180° flip of the team, we have three Bears on the defensive teams vs. one Bear on offense—a stark contrast to the Bear Raid days of Sonny Dykes.

On the All-Pac-12 second team, we’ve got inside linebacker Evan Weaver. Weaver has tallied up 65 total tackles this year, 37 of which were solo. For the first four games of the season, Weaver made double-digit total tackles—with a whopping 12 solo tackles against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Our sole Bear on offense is Patrick Mekari, who was also named to the second team. The redshirt senior is a stalwart at left tackle and was our Offensive Player of the Week against North Carolina.

But earning the highest honors are the Bears on the first team.

Ashtyn Davis earned one of the two first-team safety positions with a grade of 82.0. While not taking into consideration his skills as a return specialist, Davis’s contributions this season include 25 tackles (17 of which were solo), one fumble recovery, and two interceptions.

One of our two captains of the season, Jordan Kunaszyk and his score of 82.7 earned the FLEX slot on the first team. PFF noted that Kunaszyk has been attributed with nine pressure plays on 30 pass-rushing snaps. If you want some insanity, note that Kunaszyk has 76 total tackles so far, including a jaw-dropping 22 against the UC Los Angeles Bruins. If you want solo tackles, Kunaszyk’s got 53, with double-digit solo tackles in four games, including the last three. To top it all off, Kunaszyk has added 1.5 sacks and three forced fumbles to his season stats.

Congrats to these Bears and here’s to strong finishes to their seasons!