More than super seniors, some players in seventh season
Luc Bequette redshirted after first getting to Cal as a freshman back in 2015. The 24-year-old defensive end is now finishing his college career with the Bears after a full season away at Boston College.
Thad Mangum is in his second season with South Florida after five years at Wofford College, where his anticipated senior season ended with a knee injury in the 2019 season opener. The defensive lineman has 32 tackles for the Bulls, and had a 20-yard catch in their last game.
Minnesota defensive tackle Micah Dew-Treadway, at 315 pounds bigger than Bequette and Mangum, redshirted twice during four seasons at Notre Dame, first as a freshman in 2015 and again the next year because of a foot injury. He joined the Golden Gophers as a grad transfer in 2019.
Those massive defenders aren’t your average super seniors. They are wrapping up their seventh seasons of college football.
“When he’s no longer here, it’s going to feel awkward,” California coach Justin Wilcox said of Bequette.
The defensive tackle has played in 50 games for the Bears, including four in 2016 before an injury that led to a medical redshirt. He also started all 11 games last year at Boston College, where he went after the Pac-12 initially called off the 2020 season before later reinstating it.
Sixth-year players are common this season after
the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all fall athletes last year because of the pandemic that led to seasons being delayed, shortened and, in some cases, even canceled for some teams. But that also opened the door for some players to stay even longer after they had already been granted an extra year above the usual five years to complete four seasons.
When these seventh-year players were high school seniors in 2014, some of their current college teammates were sixth-graders. That was the first season of the four-team College Football Playoff, when Ohio State won the title with running back Ezekiel Elliott, now a two-time NFL rushing champion with the Dallas Cowboys.
Bequette, the son of 1988 Olympic bronze medalist and two-time national champion figure skater Debi Thomas, arrived at Cal
during Jared Goff ’s senior season. The quarterback was the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft the following spring and Goff, like Elliott, is now a two-time Pro Bowler in his sixth professional season.
“He’s a mature guy agewise, but just how he handles himself, he’s given us really good play on the field, leadership in the locker room,” fifth-year Cal coach Wilcox said of Bequette. “It’s a unique story, and he’s just a good guy to be around. He’s good for our program, it’s good for the younger players.”
There is even an eighthyear player this season: 26-year-old linebacker Jared Folks, who has 74 tackles for FCS playoff team East Tennessee State (10-1). He already has a bachelor’s degree in communications, a masters in marketing and is finishing up his MBA degree.