Oklahoma LB Nik Bonitto Was 'All Crazy and Stuff' but Has Emerged as a Forceful Leader

ARLINGTON, TX — Lincoln Riley looked around the room and couldn’t help but be impressed.

Not at Jerry Jones’ billion dollar playhouse, but at his own player, Nik Bonitto.

“Three years ago,” Riley said Wednesday, “to think we would bring Nik Bonitto to Big 12 Media Days is – at that point I would have said no way.”

Bonitto has emerged not only as a preseason All-American at Oklahoma’s rush linebacker position, but as a leader on the team.

To tell the truth, Bonitto himself is a little impressed at how far he’s come on this journey.

“If you don’t take care of your stuff off the field, it’s gonna affect you on the field,” he said. “I can attest to that. My freshman year, I was all crazy and stuff. I mean, once I started taking care of business, I started seeing better results on the field.”

Teammate Jeremiah Hall also can attest.

“Bonitto is my guy,” Hall said. “He’s taken tremendous strides. You guys do not understand how far Nik has come from 2018 until now. He’s not only a player that’s looking at himself to improve, but he’s improving the guys around him.”

Bonitto has woven himself into the rich tapestry of elite football players at Oklahoma — not just the kind that make plays, but as the kind that make a lasting impact on the program and in the community.

Bonitto said he saw an opportunity to step up as a team leader, and he made a conscious decision to elevate his status.

“It all starts off the field,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure you’re doing the right stuff on the field, whether that’s going to class, not missing any tutoring sessions, mentoring sessions. Once you can get that together, you can start coming to the football field, coming to the field and being a vocal leader, being playmaker and stuff like that. My part, I’m not much of a rah-rah type of guy, but I like to lead by example in all those different aspects.

“You’ve got to have a mindset,” he said. “You’ve got to want to be better for yourself and your team. Because at the end of the day, if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do, you’re only hurting the team, not only yourself. So I definitely didn’t want to let those guys down.”

That’s apparently a far cry from where Bonitto was three years ago. A 4-star prospect from Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas, Bonitto — like most college football freshman — assumed success would be his.

But it wasn’t a smooth beginning in Norman. Five games in, the coach who recruited him, Mike Stoops, was fired, replaced by defensive line coach Ruffin McNeill.

“I thought the time with Ruffin was really good for him,” Riley said. “I thought Ruff did a really good job with him because he was extremely close to Mike. Mike recruited him and obviously when Mike all of a sudden wasn’t here, that was really difficult for him.”

That transition contributed to Bonitto’s “all crazy and stuff,” and like many college freshmen, he was trying to find his own way.

“He was on thin ice at times early in his career here,” Riley said. “There were some times where you looked at him like, ‘Man, is he going to make it or not? I don’t know.’ He had to really turn it around and I give the kid a lot of credit. He’s really, in every part of his life, has really taken a dramatic shift. He certainly wasn’t a bad kid but he wasn’t bought in early in his career. He was difficult to reach. He had a real tough time with the transition. He had no momentum in anything. His turnaround has been fantastic.”

As a redshirt freshman in 2019, he famously ended the dramatic comeback at Baylor with an interception. It was a high point of a season of growth. Then last year, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Bonitto settled in more as a pass rush specialist. He became a Pro Football Focus first-team All-American, and is on numerous preseason lists in 2021.

“I think once he kind of got on the field, he had a little success and he got like a taste of it,” Riley said. “And then it was like some trust built up where I think he knew we were going to try to do the right things by him and put him in the right situations and push him the right way. Then it just built and built and built.”

Bonitto was second on the team in quarterback sacks and tackles for loss in 2020, and with another year in Alex Grinch’s defense, this year could be special.

“He’s always had just — for d-line play, we call it get-off — just unbelievable get-off. His 10-yard time is as fast as anyone on our football team and we’ve got guys that can really run. He’s always been able to bend and he’s always had great get-off.

“Now he’s started to learn to become much more than just a speed guy that beats you around the edge. He’s got a power to his game. He uses his hands better. He understands blocking schemes, how to set people up and then I think kind of the final factor is he’s been put in a system that is perfect for him. It’s kind of the perfect storm for him right now.”

Bonitto has added an array of pass-rush moves, and he’s added muscle to his frame.

But all that pales in comparison to some other elements he’s added.

“It’s a great story to see where he was,” Riley said. “And I think it’s great for a lot of young athletes out there. They ought to read his story. Everybody thinks, ‘Well, I get highly recruited and I’m gonna roll into OU or any of these other places and I’m gonna be this and it’s just gonna happen.’

“Nik was extremely highly recruited … came out of one of the best high schools in the country, was extremely successful coming in — and man, it was rough. A lot of dudes would have quit, a lot of dudes would have transferred, a lot of dudes would have went on and did something else. He’s reaping the rewards right now.”

“Much like me,” Hall said, “as he’s gotten older, he’s recognized how important of a role he’s playing to this team.

“Nik has definitely grown and I’m proud of him.”