In 2009, the SMU coaching staff took a chance on a tall, powerful European former track star when Margus Hunt joined the Mustangs as a scholarship defensive end who never had played football. Hunt turned into a record-setting kick blocker and a key cog in the SMU defense, and four years later, he was drafted in the second round by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Whether history repeats itself remains to be seen, but the Mustang coaches certainly hope that will be the case. Among the players who will take the practice field this spring will be Bozidar “Bo” Antunovic, a three-time All-America shot putter — twice at the University of Arizona in 2011 and 2012, and then last year at UT-Arlington.

Already one of the strongest players on his new team, track star-turned-defensive end Bozidar "Bo" Antunovic immediately broke the team power clean record (photo by PonyFans.com).

The comparisons to Hunt are so obvious they are almost mandatory. Antunovic stands 6-foot-6, which makes him two inches shorter than Hunt, and weighs 270 pounds — three more than Hunt weighed at the start of his freshman season. Like Hunt, the 22-year-old Antunovic also is extremely strong — in just his second workout with his new teammates, he broke the school record in the power clean (in which a barbell is lifted from the ground to a resting position across the front of the shoulders). The previous mark was 351 pounds, by defensive end Zach Wood; Antunovic hoisted nearly 364 in a lift that is dwarfed by his personal best of nearly 406.

The two players are tall, they’re fast (Antunovic said he has been timed “at 4.68, 4.7” in the 40-yard dash), they’re former track stars (like Hunt, Antunovic also throws the discus) and they both come from Europe. But the connection, Antunovic said, runs deeper than that.

“I knew Margus Hunt was here, and he’s one of my idols,” Antunovic said. “He’s the reason I started doing track and field in the first place. In 2006 — I guess I was 15 years old — I saw him at the Track and Field World Championships in Beijing. I was the best in my town — I threw the discus about 57 meters — but he won world championships. I saw him throw the discus about 67 meters.

“He was not fat — he was in shape. I was always a skinny guy, and when I saw that on TV, I was like, ‘wow — that’s awesome. I want to be like that guy.’ So I started watching his videos.

“I have never met (Hunt), but I would like to meet him and talk to him and get to know him. I’d like to talk to him about how he moved from track to football and learn how he did so well.”

As a senior in high school, Antunovic competed in the World Junior Championships in Moncton, a town in New Brunswick, Canada, which sits roughly 350 miles northeast of Augusta, the capital of Maine. College track coaches swarmed to the event, and Antunovic ended up in Tucson. In addition to twice earning All-America honors in the shot put, he placed fourth in the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships (with a throw of 64-0¼) and earned Pac-12 all-conference honors in the discus, with a personal-best discus throw of 175-09 at the 2011 NCAA West Preliminaries.

After his sophomore season with the Wildcats, Antunovic felt a little out of place, but returning to Serbia wasn’t an option.

“In Europe, you can not practice and go to school,” Antunovic said. “School is so tough you either give up school and practice or you give up practice and dedicate to school. It’s the perfect system in the U.S.”

Antunovic transferred to UTA, where he would be reunited with Serbian friends who are track athletes (the Mavericks have two Serbs on their 2014 roster). Antunovic is enrolled at SMU on a football scholarship, so learning his new sport is his primary focus, although he said he has not completely abandoned the idea of training again in track, under the guidance of SMU track coach Dave Wollman, who is considered one of the premier throwing coaches in the nation.

“I would like to do both, if I can, but I’m here for football, first,” Antunovic said. “Here at SMU was a guy called Michael Carter, who was an extremely good thrower and an extremely good football player. SMU has a great history in track and football.”

What kind of player the Mustangs are getting won’t be known for a while, until he learns the game, and the assignments and responsibilities of playing defensive end.

What he lacks in football experience, he hopes to make up for in pure strength. Bo Antunovic has bench pressed 441 pounds and squatted 595 (photo by PonyFans.com).

“Strength and speed,” Antunovic said when asked what he brings to the field. “Certainly not technique … yet.”

When Hunt first joined the Mustangs five years ago, the excitement created by his rare athletic gifts was tempered by the need for the coaches to determine how he would fare in the hand-to-hand combat that takes place on the line of scrimmage. The concern turned out to be a non-issue with Hunt, but it the hesitation made sense. Antunovic said he played a little football in Serbia and went to games while at Arizona, and said he not only doesn’t shy away from contact, but he enjoys that aspect of the sport and spent the fall semester going through individual drills he found on the internet in preparation for his new job.

“That’s one of the reasons I want to play defense,” he said. “I like to hit people, I want to chase the quarterback. It’s a dynamic position.

“I have been practicing back home, and I played a little, very informal. I don’t really mind (contact). It’s really fun. You don’t have to hit people all the time, but if you’re physically stronger, you can get out of their way. It’s not fun when somebody hits you, but it’s a lot of fun when you hit them. Strength, speed and agility help you avoid getting hit, so that will help.”

Antunovic’s first exposure to the SMU coaching staff was in the form of telephone conversations with defensive line coach Bert Hill, but he also has several members of the coaching staff, including head coach June Jones and defensive coordinator Tom Mason.

“I like them a lot,” he said. “All of the coaches are really great, and all of the players are really nice, too. Right now, I’m just trying to learn the language, the lingo.”

If learning football’s vocabulary is the biggest challenge that awaits, Antunovic, who plans to major in sports management, has shown an ability to learn language that matches his athletic gifts; he already speaks Serbian and English fluently, can read and write Russian, wants to learn German and is learning Polish on his own.

“I really like languages,” he said, “comparing languages to each other, patterns you can master and how things correlate.”

Until spring workouts begin, Antunovic is in the preparation stage. He’ll run and lift weights and study the language of football and try to soak up some of the basics from teammates.

“I don’t have a clue,” he said, laughing, when asked how soon he expects to contribute to his new team. “I never got coached by American coaches, but I know that football is not just pass rushing. Defensive ends have a bunch of stuff to memorize, so I have to learn it and execute it. I think I’m a fast learner, so if I can fast-learn that, like everything else I did, I’m not afraid I won’t make an impact.”