Oklahoma football: Nik Bonitto adds to preseason national award candidacy

Oklahoma football linebacker Nik Bonitto is drawing at lot of national attention before the first game is played kicking off the 2021 season.

The Sooners junior outside linebacker was previously named as a preseason candidate for the Bednarik Award, which recognizes the best defensive player in college football, and on Monday it was revealed Bonitto was one of 51 college linebackers who are in consideration in the 2021 season for the Butkus Award as the country’s top linebacker.

Bonitto joins seven other linebackers from the Big 12 who are up for the award heading into the new season, including his Oklahoma teammate Brian Asamoah.

Bonitto not only is high on the Butkus Award list alphabetically, but if he has the kind of season is capable of he should still be high on the list when it comes time to narrow the candidates and name semifinalist and finalists.

His numbers in the 2020 pandemic season gave us a strong indication of what we can expect in 2021. Earlier this year, Pro Football Focus said the OU outside linebacker/edge rusher “might be the most underrated player in all of college football” and one of the best defensive players in the country.

A year ago, Bonitto was credited with a team-high 10 quarterback hurries and second-best 11.5 tackles for loss to go with 8.5 quarterback sacks. He was also named a First-Team All-American last season by the editors of Pro Football Focus. And earlier this month he was named a Preseason First-Team All-America by both The Sporting News and the Walter Camp Foundation.

Asamoah led the Sooners in the 2020 season with 66 total tackles and two quarterback sacks.

Three former Oklahoma linebackers have won the Butkus Award: Brian Bosworth in 1985, Rocky Calmus in 2001 and Teddy Lehman in 2003.