It’s been a rough holiday break around the Roberts’ household. What with the bowl-we-wish-hadn’t-happened coming a year after the bowl-that-didn’t and then my household coming down with a pretty brutal case of the flu (B-strain, not swine or avian). During this same time frame, not one, but TWO Boise State standouts announced their intentions to forgo their senior seasons to test the NFL draft waters. The first—Ezra Cleveland—was a bit more of a surprise, but the second—Curtis Weaver—was decidedly not.

Weaver, who just finished his junior year with another MWC championship, bell-to-bell MWC Defensive Player of the Year honors, the MWC career sack record (34), and more All-America honors than you could feasibly shake a stick at, left little doubt he’s the greatest DE/STUD to ever set foot on The Blue. Yeah, he’s still a few sacks (20!) behind Erik Helgeson—which isn’t anything a Chris Wing-esque senior year couldn’t have accomplished (Wing had 20 QB sacks in 1996), but the blue hairs are just going to have to fight me on this one if they think any Big Sky DE is gonna surpass the incomparable Curtis “Dream” Weaver...who sacked folks for fun AND for snacks—and did so with a joy you usually only see with kids playing tee ball.

Fact is, Weaver never wasn’t smiling...unless you count the end of regulation in the 2018 MWC title game and at the end of this year’s Las Vegas Bowl. He has what one might call “goofball energy”, but a terrifying goofball he was. The Broncos don’t lose that much for 2020, but if David Moa and Sonatane Lui were the heart of the defense, Weaver was definitely the soul. An oft-injured player who was never truly injured, Weaver redefined grit and tenacity at the position. I can’t tell you how many times I watched Weaver gingerly limp to the sideline only to be back a series later making life completely miserable for opposing QBs. Against UNM this year, he looked like he may have needed Life Flight, but of course, he was back the next week in a pivotal tilt against Utah State like nothing had happened. After that contest, he told a reporter you’d need to take him off the field in a stretcher to get him to miss time and after seeing that Weapon X-like turnaround, I fully believe him.

There’ll be other players that come along that get NFL scouts drooling...heck maybe even a quarterback with sub-.500 passing who has all the other measurables, but it’ll be hard to measure what Curtis Weaver has meant to this team the last 4 years (3 as a player). The type of guy that makes those around him better (like a BALCO lab tech) while at the same time being a big rascal.

And y’know what? He’s been our rascal, and next year when he’s someone else’s rascal, he’ll still be our rascal. And sacks (and snacks) will continue to flow.

Thanks, Curt. Go be great!

Go Broncos!