Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

9/6/2010 at 1:00am

Jake Bequette

Jake Bequette is a prime example why fans, sportswriters and amateur recruiting analysts should leave the business of recruiting and evaluating to the people paid for its eventual success or failure: college coaches.

Forget for a minute that the name Bequette is famous in Arkansas Razorback annals, though bloodlines are always a consideration in evaluating a recruit.

For if someone simply watched Little Rock Catholic football games in 2005-06 and didn’t know anything else about Jake Bequette or his bloodlines, all that person would have seen was a gangly 6-foot-5 kid who didn’t start playing football until ninth grade and who didn’t always know his way around the field as a defensive lineman or tight end.

Future defensive star in the best college conference in the nation? No way, one surely would have said.

Bequette didn’t make the All-Arkansas high school all-star lists for his play, and the national recruiting services didn’t bestow four- or five-star honors on him either.

College recruiters, such as Arkansas recruiting coordinator Tim Horton, who was at Kansas State when Bequette was in high school, don’t base their judgment on one Friday night, or even a series of them, especially when it comes to linemen.

Factors such as frame, strength and the speed that may not be evident to a fan sitting in the stands come into play. Some recruiters have a knack of spotting the right work ethic away from the field, and some can make a great guess at the size of a young man’s heart and desire.

Then, of course, coaches look at the genetics, which in Jake Bequette’s case meant a father, Jay, who was All-Southwest Conference as a center in the 1980s, and an uncle, Chris, another outstanding UA offensive lineman. Grandfather George began the Bequette legacy as a Hog as well.

They term all that as “projection” when it comes to recruiting, and to Horton, Jake Bequette projected well. That’s why Kansas State offered Bequette a scholarship after his junior year at Catholic High. J.B. Grimes, who was at Mississippi State then but had coached the offensive line at Arkansas in the early 1990s, also offered the young, unproven Bequette, who had all but arrived in the world wearing a Hog jersey.

“My father was a very good player up here,” Jake said recently. “He was always on my side, no matter what, wherever I wanted to go. We both came to the decision that if Arkansas ever offered, I would commit the next day. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Horton would land on Houston Nutt’s last staff in 2007, then stay when Bobby Petrino was named head coach in December 2007, and he’s glad now that Bequette was one K-State recruit he didn’t get. Nutt, Bequette remembers, had a No. 54 jersey waiting for him — “I thought, ‘Man, I’m probably going to be an offensive guard or something,” he said — but Bequette’s speed for defensive line was undeniable. All that was needed was for his body to catch up and for the defensive light to turn on.

After redshirting in 2007, Bequette was thrown to the wolves as a second-year freshman defensive end against powerful Alabama. A year later, in the second half against Alabama, he says he felt everything come together in terms of how to play: “low-pad level, playing fast,” he said.

Bequette’s play over the latter two-thirds of the 2009 season made him a possible all-star candidate for the 2010 season. The junior commands so much respect among his teammates that he was one of six Hogs named a team captain for this season.

“It’s hard to believe,” Bequette said. “I bet there weren’t a lot of people who watched me play in high school who would have thought I could start up here and do the things that I’ve been doing. But I’ve always had very high goals for myself. I pride myself in my work ethic. It’s been a fun ride. I think to me this is the start of a very fun year.”

Bequette, sophomore Tenarius Wright, junior Demario Ambrose and a handful of young potential end standouts give new UA defensive end coach Steve Caldwell, who spent more than a decade on Phillip Fulmer’s Tennessee staff, a reason to smile.

In a league where defensive end must be a position of strength, Arkansas can finally boast of having that for the first time since the 2006 season, when the Hogs ran out to a 10-1 record and won the SEC West with a 7-1 mark, finishing the year 10-4.

“I don’t know if one position has more strength than the other on our defense, but we as a defensive staff know that it all starts up front,” says Caldwell, who coached such greats as John Henderson at Knoxville. “If we’re not good up front, it’s going to make it tough on our linebackers and the secondary. We know we’ve got to be good enough to rush the passer with four guys up front and not have to bring pressure all the time.”

Caldwell recruited the state of Arkansas for the Volunteers but didn’t get to know Bequette at Catholic High.

“I’m proud I know him now,” Caldwell said. “I think he has the measurables … He has to take that talent, and I’ve got to do my part to get him ready, to hopefully become an All-SEC player.”

Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said last year that, of all the Hogs on defense, Bequette was the most likely to interest the NFL with his size, strength and quickness.

“If you come out and walk onto our campus as a regional scout, an area scout, a position coach coming from the NFL, you’re looking at this youngster and thinking, ‘Man, this kid’s everything that you want him to look like. OK, now how does he play on film?’ And that’s their decision to make. But when you look at this kid man-to-man, in person, talk with him, he’s an impressive youngster who’s going to catch some people’s eye,” Robinson said. “It’s a matter of him raising his game a little bit. And if he does that, his future is very bright. So is ours.”

Bequette, who like his uncle, Chris, has his undergrad degree in just three years, is taking sports management classes for a master’s degree and has plans for law school eventually.

If the pros beckon, he says he’ll answer, but not until his eligibility is up at Arkansas, so Hog fans can look for Bequette’s return next season. “I want to keep playing football for as long as I can.”

Bequette’s dream since he was 3 was to play for Arkansas. The Hogs had him pegged as a player before mostly anyone else did.

“My goal was to put on this jersey one day,” he said. “I cherish every day that I do.”

Tagged: Jake Bequette, Tim Horton, Jay Bequette, Kansas State, Arkansas Razorbacks, Little Rock Catholic High School, Tenarius Wright, Demario Ambrose, Steve Caldwell