Evan Weaver breaks the school record for tackles in a season

The California Golden Bears officially have a new leader in tackles and it’s Evan Weaver.

For over thirty years, the Bear with the most tackles in a single season was Hardy Nickerson with 167. But mid-game against our Southern Branch, Weaver cruised past that mark.

(There is a one-tackle discrepancy in the numbers used by the official Cal site vs. ESPN & Sports-Reference.com, so please allow for that difference.)

Weaver ended the game with nine tackles and 172/173 tackles on the season; the bowl game does count towards his season totals, so Weaver’s got 60 more minutes to pad that record and make it tougher for future Bears to beat.

While we’ll keep an eye on what Weaver’s final school record ends up being, let’s turn the Weaver Watch towards other records.

The Pac-12 record for tackles in a season seems to be in sight. In seasons since 2005, the Pac-12 record seems to be 176 (set by the Washington Huskies’ Ben Burr-Kirven). That record has stood for all of one year, but Weaver should be able to topple that after the bowl game.

Even more astounding is the NCAA record for tackles in a season—Boston College’s Luke Kuechly with 191 (in seasons since 2005). A week ago, this record seemed like much more of a certainty—Weaver needed 28/29 tackles to set a new record, but was on-pace to finish the season with ~30 tackles. Last night, however, Weaver was held to his second-lowest output of the season with just nine tackles. Weaver now needs 19/20 tackles to break the record, a feat he has only bested thrice this season. Depending on the count, Weaver is either currently at sixth since 2005 or tied for fifth with San Jose State’s Frank Ginda.

Congrats to Evan and good luck in breaking the Pac-12 record and climbing the NCAA history book!