DAVIS, Calif. (KTXL) -Tackling is a fundamental part of football. Usually, it’s a defender tackling a ball carrier. UC Davis running back Lan Larison spends most of his time on offense trying to avoid getting tackled, but off the football field, he’s the one doing the tackling. Jumping off of a horse and taking down a steer in the rodeo event of steer wrestling. That all seems pretty fitting since he is an Aggie after all.

“I love rodeo,” Larison said. “My parents always told me I can rodeo forever, but I can’t play football forever. Something cool would be after my football career, I could go back rodeoing.”

From steer wrestling to the gridiron, there’s seemingly nothing Lan Larison can’t do.

“I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie, so I love it,” Larison said.

“I don’t know when’s the last time he’s practiced rodeo, but I have seen him do that,” UC Davis offensive coordinator Mike Cody said. “I’ve seen him jump off a horse and wrestle a steer to the ground in front of ten thousand people which is a really fun thing.”

For as long as the Aggies running back can remember, rodeo has been a part of his life.

Larison, who comes from a long line of rodeo, competed as a steer wrestler collecting a number of accolades, all while being a multi-sport athlete.

In high school, the Idaho native went from rodeo to Friday night lights. Larison was torn on his future, but thanks to the Aggies everything became clearer.

“The recruiting process was pretty tough, pretty weird, for a kid in high school who doesn’t really know what he wants to do,” Larison said. “But they were really supportive. They reached out to me quite often. It was like a whole team recruiting me and not just one guy. They were really good and I fell in love with this place when I came here to visit.”

Larison is coming off the 2022 season where he earned first-team All Big Sky honors.

“Lan can do a lot of different things,” Cody added. “And we ask him to do a lot of different things. We line him up in a lot of different spots. And he’s a very cerebral person too, so he can handle a lot of stuff on his plate.”

To only call him a running back would be a disservice. Last season he recorded stats on defense, as a quarterback, a receiver, a running back, and as a return man on special teams.

Cody continued: “The sky’s the limit for Lan, honestly. I mean only time will tell. But I do know at the professional level, doesn’t matter where you play if you’re good enough they’ll find you. And obviously, he’s on track for that.”

Despite his love for rodeo, Larison’s plan is to leave all he has to the game and the rest will fall into place.