Nik Bonitto began working with pass-rush guru Javon Gopie in the spring of 2020, just as COVID shut down the world.
They were in Florida, hopping from park to park and then jumping fences in search of an open patch of grass. They found it at St. John XXIII Catholic Church in Miramar. It was more loose rock than anything. But it was something.
Bonitto was heading into his third year as an edge rusher at Oklahoma, and he was eager, but Gopie was baffled as he watched him run through drills.
Bro, Gopie recalled thinking, this dude does not move full speed.