Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante discusses Tanoh Kpassagnon

The word “raw” is one that’s always packaged with Tanoh by analysts. Do you think that’s overplayed or is there some merit to it?

Maybe a little bit of both. The explanation for that is when he came here to Villanova, we did recruit him and we anticipated him playing defensive end for us. However, his first year here, we had a slew of injuries at tight end, so we moved him to tight end. For his first year here, he played tight end. Thankfully he didn’t play. He redshirted, so we didn’t burn a year. But for that fall and spring, he was not on the defensive side. That may have slowed him down a little bit.

Then for the next four years, when he was playing defensive end for us, we had three different defensive line coaches over that four-year span. Each coach probably has his own little way of presenting things, so you’re almost relearning things from one year to the next. All the coaches who left had great opportunities. One guy left to go to an FBS school and so did the next one. The last one was someone we brought back in Joe Trainor. He was with us for 8 years as our defensive coordinator, but he’s really more of a linebacker coach, per se. However, the defensive line position was all we had available, so we brought Joe back and he was with Tanoh for the last couple years. So that might have something to do with that rawness aspect of things. We even saw it at times from him on the field.

So I think his best years are ahead of him. He would go from football to basketball to track, so he’s not specializing at that level. This will be his first chance to think about football all year long.

How have you seen him develop in the last year? And where does he need to develop now?

I think the biggest area for him to grow will be in technique, the hand placement, all those types of things he’ll learn at the next level once he’s doing it exclusively wtih the Chiefs staff. His development was amazing. He has such raw, natural athleticism. He’s a freak athletically. He has those genetics at 6-7, 280 lbs. and ran a 4.7 40-yard dash. He came to our one day camp and weighed maybe 240 pounds when we recruited him, so to put on 40 more pounds and not gain any extra fat — his body fat composition is still probably very low.

He has one motor with everything he does, whether it’s with his studies or whether it be in the weight room or on the field, he’s going to give you everything he’s got. He’s going to go full speed. The other thing I like about him is that he’s an even-keeled guy, kind of a flatlined guy. He’s never going to get overly excited about anything, but in the five years he’s been with us, I’ve never seen him bummed or depressed. If he makes a mistake, he doesn’t let it linger. He’ll go get the next one.