UW Football | Bonnell back from the brink

They recognize Carl Bonnell again when he's out there running around on a field down below.

"He looks like he's back in high school again," said his father, Glenn. "He's having fun."

That's not a word that's described much of the college career of Bonnell, who steps back into the limelight this week as Washington's new starting quarterback with Isaiah Stanback out for the year with a foot injury suffered against Oregon State.

Bonnell has made a controversial school change from Washington State to rival Washington; had five different college head coaches; suffered two season-ending injuries; and grown frustrated enough to wonder at times if it was really all worth it.

With enough credits to graduate next quarter with a degree in history, Bonnell, a junior in eligibility, said last spring that if he saw no future in football, he might just walk away before his eligibility was up.

But once healthy last spring, Bonnell began to show yet another round of new coaches all the things that had so enticed so many of his former coaches. There was the headiness that helped lead Kentwood High to a 37-4 record during his time as a starter, including one state 4A title. A solid and accurate arm. And the wheels that once allowed him to run for 65 yards on one drive against San Jose State in 2004.

"Football is something I've loved to do since I was 8 years old," he said. "After 15 years of playing something, you have to try to keep on playing it. It's a lot more fun playing football when you're not in the training room every day."

Now he gets the chance that could finally make his circuitous route to this moment all worthwhile.

Typical of his career, however, it's an opportunity that comes with its own asterisk. Everybody wonders whether the Huskies might just eventually turn to freshman Jake Locker, who has often been called the savior of the program.

"There's always pressure from behind," Bonnell said. "But having a good player behind you makes you better. Jake will push me this week and every week until I'm done here."

And UW coaches and his teammates say they have faith in Bonnell.

"Nobody's worried," said senior linebacker Tahj Bomar. "We are just going to rally around him and hope he has a good outing and encourage him."

Bomar might have more reason for faith than anyone. He was a teammate at Kentwood, where they played together on the 2001 team that won the state title.

Bomar calls Bonnell "a quiet leader. For the most part in high school, he led by example, by basically winning."

Bonnell signed with WSU where his older brother, Ray, was a walk-on. But Glenn Bonnell said he thought Carl "always wanted to be a Husky." Only UW didn't make him an offer, having already promised its scholarship for a quarterback that year to Stanback. Glenn, who is the brother of former Mariner Barry Bonnell and also played minor-league baseball in the Reds' organization, took Carl to his first Huskies game when Carl was "6 or 7 years old. He always liked going to Husky Stadium."

Bonnell spent the fall of 2002 at WSU as a grayshirt, attending classes part-time and having no official contact with the football team in an effort to gain an extra year of eligibility at the suggestion of coach Mike Price.

But sitting out in that manner made his letter of intent void, and that fall, UW coach Rick Neuheisel asked Bonnell if he might be interested in switching sides.

"He left here on a Friday and I thought he was a Cougar and on Saturday morning he said he's accepting an offer [to be a Husky]," said WSU coach Bill Doba on Tuesday. "But I want kids who want to be here and if he doesn't want to be here, that's fine. At least he was upfront about it. I have no hard feelings."

Bonnell arrived at UW in the fall of 2003, just in time to see Keith Gilbertson take over for the fired Neuheisel. The following year, he was named the starter after the third game of the season, with some on Montlake theorizing that the job was now his for the next four years. Instead, he kept it two games, suffering a groin injury in the first half against San Jose State.

By then, there was another new coach, and he had fallen behind Stanback on the two-deep amid rumblings that he didn't work as hard at the game in the film room as was needed, an observation current UW offensive coordinator Tim Lappano also made last spring.

Bonnell has always resisted that notion, saying he was always committed to football but that being in the training room all the time made it difficult to show it.

"I think just not being injured got me back in the mindset of playing," Bonnell said.

Just as he was making another move in the fall of 2005, he collided with running back Chris Singleton on a simple handoff, and what started as a thigh bruise morphed into an injury that kept him out all year.

"It was hard for him to have to sit back and not be able to do anything," Glenn Bonnell said. "It was kind of a downer year for him."

The saving grace was his marriage in the summer of 2005 to his longtime girlfriend, Katie Feldon, a former volleyball and basketball player at The Master's College in Southern California. Katie now works as a dental assistant in Bellevue and the two share an apartment in Laurelhurst.

"He's always been a pretty stable guy," said UW coach Tyrone Willingham. "He's had his [marriage], which has kept him in a much different situation than a lot of guys who seem to be going through the experience of college, and that allows him to focus on the things that are important in his life."

So he got healthy again, got the backup job, and now due to fate, gets one more chance.

"Playing at Kentwood, there's a confidence thing where you know you can go in there and beat anybody," he said. "I just have to bring that to this team now."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com