MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When you’re 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds, there are only two ways onto a Division I college football roster – world-class speed or world-class work ethic.
For Dante Bonamico, the latter was required.
When the Bridgeport native walked on at West Virginia in 2016, he knew what the odds were.
“When you get that slight opportunity, you have to take advantage of it,” Bonamico said of the advice given to him by then-graduate assistant Casey Vance, a former WVU walk-on who became an all-Big East linebacker. “When they give me that one chance, I can’t make any mistakes and they’ll look at me as a guy they can trust.”
Bonamico played in six games as a redshirt freshman, then moved up to playing in all 12 last season as one of West Virginia’s top special-teamers.
This year, he will be thrown into the deep end of the pool.
When all-Big 12 safety Kenny Robinson and fellow starter Derrek Pitts left the program over the summer, Bonamico was thrust from contributor to likely starter.
For many fans, the prospect of a former walk-on playing serious snaps against some of the best receivers in the country is plenty alarming.
“When those guys did leave, it was like all hell broke loose on social media,” Bonamico said. “We just kind of blocked it out. We knew what we had. We knew we had guys that are inexperienced, but we knew we could play. It was just time to fill those voids that were left by Derrek and Kenny.”
Bonamico’s response to moving atop the depth chart is to maintain the same attitude he had when he was at the very bottom of it.
“I’m still going nose to the grindstone every day. No one has a job set in stone yet,” he said. “I worked my tail off this summer. All of us did. The DBs were in here every day hitting weights we’ve never hit, pushing each other every day.”
Though he lacks in-game experience as a starting safety, Bonamico thinks he’s spent enough time observing the players who have filled that role to know what’s expected of him.
“I’ve bid my time,” Bonamico said. “I learned from guys like Dravon [Askew-Henry] and Toyous Avery and Jared Harper. They put in time over 3-4 years to play. I’ve learned to come in every day and work and push the guys in front of you.”
The increased playing time isn’t going to be what feels different to Bonamico. It’s being a guy that other players are looking to as a leader, which is thrown into the blender along with learning an entirely new defense under coordinator Vic Koenning.
“It’s different, because we’re learning a new defense and at the same time you’re trying to bring those [younger] guys along,” Bonamico said. “I’m trying to learn it myself so I can produce and bring those guys along with me.”