Never turn down an adventure

— Luc Bequette (@bigbeq12) September 5, 2017

This feature originally appeared in the Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.



Luc Bequette's life has mirrored the words he pinned to his Twitter nearly two years ago.
 
Cal's fifth-year defensive end is undoubtedly the most stable entity on the team's defensive front and a rock for a unit that is expected to be among the nation's best in 2019. But it has indeed been quite an adventure for the 22-year-old to get to this point in his life.
 
By the time Bequette arrived on the Cal campus in June of 2015 a few days short of his 18th birthday, his adventure was already in full swing.
 
Bequette was born in Chicago as the son of Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas and Arkansas football player Chris Bequette. The Bequettes moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, shortly after he was born and on to Fountain Valley in Southern California at the age of 4. He returned to Illinois when he was 10 years old to reside in the Champaign area. His parents split a few years later, and before he had completed high school, he was back in Little Rock. By the time his prep football career ended, he had played at three different schools in two states.
 
"Moving was always difficult because it involved leaving familiarity and friends," Bequette said. "There's always a thought in the back of your mind that maybe you won't fit in. Luckily since I was playing sports, it was easy to make friends. I've had the opportunity to live in three very different parts of the country, and that has allowed me to experience many different walks of life."
 
Bequette had also made enough progress on the football field to put a pair of all-state honors on his résumé. Still, he was not considered a top college prospect. However, with a father who is a financial advisor with a long list of college football coaches as a clients, he had many connections within the college football world.
 
One of those connections was former Cal defensive coordinator Art Kaufman, who talked with the elder Bequette about the viability of Luc coming to California for a football camp the summer before his senior season.
 
"To get out to California was pretty pricey so my dad asked coach Kaufman if it would be worth our while to come out to a camp, and he said it would," Bequette remembered.
 
Kaufman's projection was accurate, and shortly after attending Cal's camp, Bequette was offered a scholarship.
 
After redshirting as a true freshman in 2015, Bequette played in the first four games of 2016 and seemed well on his way to becoming a regular on the defensive line until a freak knee injury set him back.
 
Bequette and fellow Cal defensive linemen Cameron Saffle and James Looney liked to stay loose and have a little fun before games by playing catch and running a few routes shortly after their stadium arrival.
 
Prior to the team's home game against Utah on Oct. 1, 2016, Bequette and Saffle were doing just that. Bequette was having a blast mimicking receivers making dramatic catches in the end zone.
 
"I had never felt so athletic in my life," Bequette said. "I was making jumping one-handed catches in the back of the end zone, getting one foot in bounds. I could see some fans watching me. It was pretty cool."
 
But what happened next was not so cool.
 
"Cam threw one really high in the back of the end zone," Bequette recalled. "I high-pointed it, caught it, got two feet in bounds, and it popped."
 
He remains proud of the acrobatic catch to this day, but it was little consolation for a serious knee injury that would keep him off the field for the rest of 2016 and the following spring.
 
"At first, it was really difficult to deal with the injury," Bequette said. "It was new territory for me since I really hadn't had a serious injury before, and I was extremely upset. But when the new staff came in, [strength] coach [Torre] Becton noticed how I was dragging along with my rehab and workouts. He sat me down and gave it to me straight. Ever since then, my attitude improved, and I have really been trying to do everything with the best intent and desire."
 
That outlook got him back on the field and has made it nearly impossible to get him off since, meriting 25 starts over the past two seasons.
 
After a solid 2017 campaign that earned him the team's Most Improved Lineman honors, Bequette had a breakthrough season in 2018 when he contributed career highs of 49 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and a team-high-tying 5.0 sacks that ranked eighth in the Pac-12. Bequette's 2018 performance made him a third-team All-Pac-12 selection by Phil Steele and an honorable mention choice of the league's coaches, as well as Cal's Most Valuable Defensive Lineman.
 
Bequette completed his requirements for a degree in legal studies in May and is working on a second major in American studies during his fifth season of eligibility this year. He hopes to use that time to become a bona-fide superstar for the Bears.
 
A 2019 second-team preseason All-Pac-12 choice of Athlon Sports, Bequette showed signs of that superstar status last year, especially during a performance at USC when he earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors after recording career highs of eight tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks. He also had a critical forced fumble deep in Cal territory that thwarted a USC scoring drive just before halftime of a 15-14 road win that ended a string of 14 consecutive losses to the Trojans and was Cal's first victory in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 2000.
 
"That was definitely a really fun game," Bequette said. "Those are the kinds of games I love – a big-name opponent at their place in such a legendary stadium. I've got to be more consistent so I can have more games like that."
 
He also knows the importance of his leadership role and the influence he has on others.
 
"I am so proud of Luc for becoming both the player and teammate he is," head coach Justin Wilcox said. "Luc is accountable for himself and stands up for the right way to do things. He also holds his teammates accountable, and that type of accountability from your student-athletes is crucial to having good teams and a successful program."
 
"Last year was really the start of me becoming a leader on the team," added Bequette, who is one of a select number of student-athletes selected by Wilcox for the team's player counsel. "It's definitely an honor. It shows that I am doing something right. I want to be able to spread the way I do things to the younger guys so that when I'm gone Cal football stays in good hands."
 
Until then, Bequette's adventure will continue right here in Berkeley.