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Former walk-on Dante Bonamico thrust atop WVU safety depth chart

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.