Will Bonilla was named the Ponies' Defensive MVP in 2007 (photo by Webmaster).

Will Bonilla is not a happy guy.

Here he is, working out with his teammates to get ready for his senior season, enjoying the workouts and bonding that come with being a part of a team, without the structure of formal practices and the correction from coaches. Players are lifting and running, throwing and catching. At the same time, they’re spending time with their teammates and getting to know the new freshmen, telling stories and cracking jokes. Good times, right?

Yes and no. A senior from Corpus Christi, Texas, Bonilla is a hard worker who seems to enjoy his teammates, and clearly enjoys playing for SMU, where his father also played in the mid-1970s. A year ago, the former walk-on who has heard jabs since his arrival at SMU about being too slow and too short was named the Ponies’ defensive Most Valuable Player after tying for the team lead with 82 tackles. He had a pair of interceptions, including one he returned 29 yards against UTEP, and five tackles-for-loss.

But Bonilla is anything but satisfied with his junior season. The Ponies surrendered an embarrassing 39.8 points and 498.7 yards per game. They lost 11 games, and won just one — in which North Texas threw for 601 yards. Just about anything that could have gone wrong for the SMU defense did, and it doesn’t sit very well with Bonilla.

“It (the 2007 season) stuck with me ever since the season ended,” Bonilla said. “Our defense is a proud group, and last year was just embarrassing.”

Even more than the gaudy passing numbers opponents racked up — opposing offenses threw for 301.4 yards per game — what bothered Bonilla was the fact that the Ponies gave up nearly 200 yards (197.2) rushing yards per game.

“Before last year, that was always our thing: no one was going to run on us,” he said. “We had that big defensive line, and when you give up a lot of rushing yards, it’s because you’re getting ‘out-physicalled.’ If you’re in the (defensive) front seven, that’s just unacceptable. Our defense is a gap defense, and if everyone gets in his gap, there’s no way teams should run much on you, unless they just ‘out-physical’ you.”

For his part, Bonilla has taken steps to do what he can to help change that. He has worked hard on his offseason conditioning and re-vamped his diet, which has allowed him to maintain his 219 pounds while getting leaner, which he said makes him feel a step quicker and definitely stronger.

“I’m really strict about my diet,” he said. “I lost a lot of body fat without gaining weight. I basically just took a lot of the carbs out of my diet. One of my best friends is a trainer, and he taught be about eating a lot of chicken, egg whites, almonds, oatmeal — they’re all really healthy.”

While he has committed himself to being in the best physical condition he can, Bonilla said the schemes taught by new defensive coordinator Tom Mason will allow the Mustangs to be far more effective in 2008.

Will Bonilla tied for the team lead with 82 tackles in 2007 (photo by Travis Johnston).

“We’ve got a lot of different packages, compared to what we used to run,” he said. “As far as the linebackers, we’re going to blitz a lot more — obviously, we love that.

“But beyond that, the technique (assistant head coach/defense) Coach (Tim) Hundley has taught us helps us read offenses faster. He has taught us to open up to the receiver more to read who’s going where. The worst thing you can do sometimes is read the quarterback, because the receivers will come hit you. The outside receiver is the ‘1’ and the inside receiver is the ‘2’ — if you focus too hard on the quarterback, the ‘1’ might come in and earhole you before you even see him coming.”

For all his work on his physique and on learning the new defense, Bonilla realizes that when preseason workouts come around in August, he — like all of his teammates — will be auditioning for playing time with the new coaching staff, and while he likely will be playing in the WILL (weakside) linebacker spot, his versatility is one of the attributes he hopes will appeal to his new coaches.

“Coach Hundley told me to be ready to play all three (linebacker) positions,” Bonilla said. “They don’t necessarily want someone to play all three, but they want us to be ready, just in case anything happens.

“I’ve got to be ready, no matter what the coaches want me to do. They say the easiest way to get on the field is to make sure your coaches trust you, so I’m going to make sure I know all three positions. I just need to make sure they know I can do a lot of things to help our defense get better.”