Counting Down Cal’s Top-50 Transfer Athletes: No. 39 Luc Bequette

The transfer portal era in college athletics seems like it’s been with us forever. Likewise, most fans can recall less turbulent times when transfers happened, they simply didn’t look like a stampede to the 1849 California Gold Rush.

We thought it was time to rank the best transfers Cal teams have attracted, most of them in recent seasons but also including a few OGs from yesteryear. 

We limited our ranking to transfers from four-year colleges.

Here is the next athlete in our countdown: 

39. Luc Bequette

Sport: Football

Arrival years at Cal: 2016 & 2021

Previous school: Boston College 

Contributions at Cal: 

— Bequette’s college career followed an unusual path, starting with four seasons at Cal, then one at Boston College before a return to Berkeley for his final year. Primarily a defensive end, he also played defensive tackle and even had a brief stint on the offensive line.

— He had an impactful 2018 campaign, with 49 tackles, including five sacks, and two forced fumbles. A year later, Bequette had 52 tackles, three sacks and once again forced a pair of fumbles.

— Bequette, whose father, grandfather, uncle and cousin all played at Arkansas, transferred to Boston College for the 2020 season after it was decided Pac-12 schools would play a shortened schedule due to the pandemic. While Cal had just four games, Bequette and the Eagles played 11, during which he had 18 tackles, one sack and forced two more fumbles.

— Back at Cal in 2021 and given an additional season because of the pandemic, Bequette assembled 40 tackles, 3.5 sacks and four passes defended. An Oct. 30 game vs. Oregon State marked his 57th consecutive start, the longest by anyone since at least 2012, when STATS began tracking the numbers.

Standout performance: As a third-year player in 2018, Bequette put together his most memorable game, totaling a career-high nine tackles, including a career-best two sacks and 2 1/2 tackles for loss, along with a forced fumble as the Bears rallied from a 14-0 halftime deficit for a 15-14 victory over USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum.  The win made the Bears bowl eligible, snapped a 14-game losing streak to the Trojans and was their first road win over USC since 2000.

Impact on his team: The son of Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas turned out to be a pretty good football player. He won Cal’s Brick Muller Award as the team’s best lineman three times — in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Bequette also did something perhaps no other player has done: He committed to play for the Bears twice, five years apart.

Previously on our list: 

No. 40: Caisa-Marie Lindfors

No. 41: Kendrick Raphael

No. 42: Aidan Keanaaina