Q&A With Defensive Lineman Luc Bequette

The best three defensive linemen will be the ones that'll start. That's been the ethos of pretty much every position under Justin Wilcox, and it's why every defensive lineman is playing every position. One of those standing out has been redshirt sophomore Luc Bequette, who's listed as a nose guard, but has played at all three spots on the defensive line.

"He’s got some tools," Wilcox said, "there’s no doubt about that. He’s become more comfortable with what he’s supposed to do, so when it starts to become less thinking and more reactive, and he has the tools to do the things we want him to do."

"He’s been a little bit of a pleasant surprise," defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter noted. "When we saw him in the springtime, we knew he was a big bodied guy, watched a little bit of tape on him last year, there wasn’t much, wasn’t sure about his athleticism, but I think in our package, and again coach Azz does a tremendous job teaching these guys how to play the way we want them to play, he’s really kinda found a niche in this package, he’s kind of a tweener guy. He’s not a defensive end, he’s not a true three technique, he’s not a true nose guard, but within our system playing a 4-I (inside shade of the tackle) he’s done a nice job and playing a little bit of nose."

GoldenBearReport had the opportunity to speak with Bequette, who in addition to standing out so far on the defensive line, is a big fan of Game of Throne, and additionally made the first comparison of Wilcox to the Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister.

When did you first notice that Wilcox looks like Jaime Lannister?

I was going through some pictures on the internet, just looking at what coach Wilcox looked like in action on gameday, and I just came across one of the pictures, and I knew he looked familiar, he looked like Jaime Lannister.

Have you guys talked about getting him a gold glove at some point?

That’s actually a really good idea. I’m gonna have to bring that up with all the Game of Throne guys on the team.

Do you guys all watch together?

We actually do. On Sundays for season seven, since it’s been coming out on Sundays at 6, we’ve been getting in the team room and Foxy (director of technology Matt Fox) showed us how to set up all the new projectors and everything, so we’ve just been watching it in there.

How big is this group?

We usually get 10 to 15 guys, some guys just like to watch it alone, which you know I respect that, but it’s been fun having a group. When something big happens we all go crazy, it’s been fun with them.

Who are some of the people that’ve been there?

Billy (McCrary)and Dylan (Klumph) are there, and then Looney’s been there, Evan Weaver will come, Noah Westerfield, Aisea Tongilava, Zeandae (Johnson) will come. We’ve got a big old group that watches Game of Thrones on the team, so I made a huge group chat for everyone to start sending out texts, when we’re gonna be watching it and stuff like that.

Have you tried to get coach Wilcox watching it, despite the fact that he doesn’t have a TV?

He sent me a text after, because he said one of his friends saw the thing I posted on twitter, and he said ‘yeah, that does kinda look like me.’ I sent him a text that said, ‘yeah, you should watch it coach.’ We’ll see if he listens.

Onto the football stuff, how’s your knee feeling after healing up?

Feeling great, it’s fun to be out there running around. The hardest part was getting used to the brace at first, and now I hardly even realize it’s on, so it’s fun to fly around and the game’s really starting to slow down as I understand the defense more.

What has coach Azzinaro brought to the table in terms of understanding?

A real big ferocity. He really teaches indy (individual position drills) really well, we’re always hitting the sleds, and he’s really talking about heavy hands and fast hands, I’m guessing that probably comes from his boxing background back in the day, and he’s always talking about punching a guy.

How much of an emphasis on form has there been?

It’s definitely still a big emphasis. Mainly it starts with the hands, and then your feet will come, and you really want to keep a wide base and walk a guy back.

How confident do you guys feel, because it looks very much changed from a year ago?

We’re really excited, we feel really confident out there. Every now and then the offense will be clicking, but a lot of times we’re really feeling good, and we’ve really been flying around.

Does part of that come from wanting to prove yourselves after last season?

Yeah definitely, we remind ourselves every day what our defense was last year. We’re always talking about how we’re gonna fix that. We’ve gotta focus more on some of the little things sometimes, some of the off the field stuff, easy housekeeping stuff, because in the end that’s gonna transition on the field.

You’ve been moving back and forth between defensive end and nose guard, do you feel more comfortable with one or the other?

I feel comfortable with both, Azz really wants us to learn all three of the D-Line positions. I think that’s because we’re all going to be rotating, there’s not going to be a certain rotation with guys subbing in and out. Coming in, I really was thinking nose the whole time, and when I started playing a lot more end, it started feeling a lot more comfortable.