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Dave Wilson
Dave Leblanc remembers when he saw Jack Bech Practice for the first time in a high school football camp. Thomas More in Lafayette, Louisiana, since 1995, has seen his share of talented players passing through South Louisiana in St. Thomas More in Louisiana. But Bech excelled.
“I have witnesses,” Leblanc said. “When he ran, he did some agility blocks, and I watched him perform, I said,” This will be another child playing on Sunday. “I called it in the seventh grade before his hair under his arms.”
The coaches already had a reference framework, albeit smaller. Trained by Tiger Bech, Jack’s older brother, aggressive, fiery but tiny versatile talent that continued the star Princecetone.
“In front of Jack, Tiger was the best receiver we had ever had,” said Lance Strother, a wide coach of STM. “Then Jack came up with the same set of skill, but also brought metrics, size and strength.”
Both fearless. Nor did the drops of confidence reached. They were only five years apart and completely different in assembly.
“Tiger was 5-9 on a high day,” said their father Martin, “While Jack has always been a man among the boys. He was always huge.”
For all those years later, Jack Bech is higher than ever. Now 6-Naha-2, 215 pounds, was considered a solid selection of 2 on the next week of the NFL draft, all this while carrying the hope of his brother and his family after Tiger, his best friend, was killed 1. January In a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
“Whatever the team gets me, it will be a special two for one. Not only will you get Jack Bech, but you will also get Tiger Bech,” Jack said. “Now I have a superpower. I have another presence about me that just can’t lose.”
Jack an idolized tigerWatching him everywhere since he could walk. He watched his brother became a football star, and wanted to be like him. But Tiger would always tell Jack that he was given genetic gifts he was missing, and called his little brother a “prototype”.
Two of their uncles, Brett and Blain Bech, played football LsuAnd their aunt, Brenna Bech, was in the first Tigers football team. Naturally, they were competitive, but Tiger, who became a specialist in the return of All-II at college, saw more things for Jack.
Baton Rouge was just 45 minutes away and grew up on the LSU games in Death Valley and watched Tyrannn Mathieu, Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette.
And Jack would be the next.
“I had two dreams: one was supposed to play at the Tiger stadium and one was supposed to play in the NFL,” Jack said.
At the end of October 2020, shortly before signing the day, Jack, who committed himself to Vanderbilt, finally got an offer from LSU. The family was excited. One of his dreams came true.
And he was a star from the gate. Jack Bech began seven games like a newcomer, caught 43 passages for 489 yards and three landings and became a favorite of fans. He played as a hybrid fixed End/slot receiver, has been named two different teams Freshman All-American in 2021 next to players such as Xavier Worthy and Brock Bowers. But as soon as Ed Orgeron was released and Brian Kelly arrived with a new coaching staff, he had to start again.
Fought with some annoying injuries but was cleaned to play, even though he eventually got stuck in Logjam in a charged room of receivers with Malik Nabery, Kayshon boutte, Kyren Lacy and Brian Thomas jr. He played in 12 games and caught only 16 passages for 200 yards and landing.
“When coaching was changed, there were no guys who hired him, and everyone around him didn’t think he was organized by a fairly shaking,” Leblanc said. “He went out of the newcomer to be All-American, then he got to the field maybe 25% of the shots.
Chose TCU As his goal, but Sonny Dykes, who trained in Louisiana Tech and knows that the mental power has LSU above the population of the state, he knew it was a decision to make it.
“There is no one who loves the state of Louisiana more than his family,” Dykes said. “There was a line and I’m sure it was very difficult for him to leave.
In Fort Worth, Jack suffered a high sprain of ankle and underwent surgery when the horned frogs that came from the season 13-2 in 2022 slipped to 5-7. But in the middle of the fighting, Dykes sold it on a long reach plan and told him they wanted him to get him fully healthy and back to who was a newcomer, even though it was frustrating for Jack.
“Well, we’ll give Sonny Dykes a lot of recognition,” Strother said. “Imagine that the first -class racing car and ready to leave and you are sure there is no other car that could beat it anywhere, but you keep it in the garage. It was the question that Jack was healthy and then released.”
Dykes said that in the middle of his junior year Jack had so many small bumps and bruises that “had one of everything”. He saw how bad Jack wanted to play, which he said could be part of the problem. Could not release the gas.
“He is a person who really trained his body, really hard, never took a break and tried to push out every individual ounce from his body,” Dykes said. “And that’s why it was quite a bitter.”
Since October he caught only five passages because he was held on a tight leash. He completed his junior year in 2023 with eight games and caught 12 passages of 146 yards. But Dykes would tell anyone who would listen to he would be a star next season. And in the spring it was obvious.
“We wanted to play it inside, but we had a logjam players inside and he was just getting so high that we wanted to play him down. So we moved him out and the thing was that he knew all the positions. It’s easier to move from outside because you have to deal with the rohs and releases.
He responded one of the largest seasons by the horned frog receiver and caught 62 passages for 1,034 yards and nine landings in 2024, the fourth highest season in the TCU history, only watched Josh Docson, Quentin Johnston and Jalen Reactorwho were all the first round.
And the best of all is that the tiger was there to watch every game, flying down from New York, where he started a career as a broker.
“One of the biggest things this season was that she gave us, our whole family focused,” said Martin Bech. “My daughter lives in Philadelphia, another lives in Nashville. Everyone gave us a place of the assembly. Tiger just loved that he was there in Fort Worth and was with Jack. The family now has a famous text about how Tiger was so much in love with Jack.”
“It’s going on,” Tiger wrote.
At 3:15 1 January was Tiger and his roommate Ryan Quigley, with whom he worked in New York, on Bourbon Street, when Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Houston accelerated his pickup into the crowd, then he got into a shootout with the police before he was deadly injured. Killed 14 peopleIncluding tiger and injured at least 57 others, including Quigley.
Tiger was transported to the hospital and kept the support of life until his family arrived. Immediately, TCU’s Jack booster flew to New Orleans on his plane, but he didn’t do it in time. The moment he got a news tiger, he was gone, he thought Tiger would get the hall of the Hall of Fame.
Jack was immediately out, doing television conversations, and hoping to talk about his brother whenever he was needed. He and the family were unimaginable.
“Our pain and our suffering are no different from 13 other families who have lost their loved ones in this horror,” Martin said. “All these children who have been on ICU for weeks, and Tiger’s roommate who left his foot and his face ran after six inches, everyone fights the same. We are just blessed to have a platform to share Tiger’s story.”
Jack said that his foundation was his faith, that he believed that this year was the reason that happened as it was. Tiger and family were gathered for every game. Had the best season of his life. They were all together in New Orleans for Christmas.
Martin said he began to hear stories after Tiger died of all the people he had visited home in Louisiana, during the holidays he hadn’t seen in years. They think it was also for design. He said Tiger knew Jack would be a strict Fort Worth training for this design, so he wanted to maximize his time together.
“When we are at home, we will spend every minute together,” Tiger told Jack. “If we have to go for Christmas shopping, we will go together. If we have to meet a friend, we will meet together with my friend. If we go to our aunt’s house for dinner, we go together. They were inseparable. We were inseparable. We were inseparable.
Jack says it’s all fate. And that allowed him to find new equipment.
Every coach who knows Jack has seen a different jack from that day. And they all have similar convenient instead of what they see.
“He was already a great trajectory,” Dykes said. “That was a kind of rocket fuel.”
“Some people could turn from rails after you lose your best friend, but did the opposite with Jack,” Leblanc said. “Jack was supposed to be in the league with or without Tiger, but Tiger’s passage was driven by him.”
“Tiger, who was a completely phenomenal footballer, knew and understood long before he understood the rest of the football world and believed Jack was tied to the highest level,” Strother said. “He is now tied, determined, and in the fire to bring to the most complete potential of his talent and ability in honor of the tiger and in honor of his faith.”
Everything culminated in the magical performance of seniors.
Jim Nagy, Executive Director of the game, was given Jack No. 7 Jersey, Tiger’s number. Each player on the pitch was wearing a 7 tiger sticker. Jack had an impressive performance and earned a distinction of MVP with six catches for 68 yards.
Dykes said he looked with his eight -year -old son Daniel, who said, “Dad, Jack is going to land on the last game of the game.”
There are 7 seconds left, Memphis QB Seth Henigan He was rolled to the right and found Jack for the winner of the game. Jack calls these moments “tiger blink”.
“I knew I was going to catch the ball and the landing score,” he said. “My brother’s name was written in the clouds above us. Only so much sign. I think if you don’t believe God is real, I don’t know how much more you need.”
He lived this offseason all his life. Now he is waiting to see where he is going. But wherever it is, Tiger will be with him. On the chest, the tattooed “7 to Heaven”, along with a set of Roman numerals representing the data of Tiger and death.
“They’re just on the left side of my body because it was my other half,” Jack said.
Strother said it would be hard to know that Tiger would not be a party for Jack’s design.
“Throughout this party’s proposal, the tiger spirit will be all the time, because it was the day and the moment Jack and Tiger were really looking forward to,” he said.
And anyone who turns this card with the Jack number is both getting them.
