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With the NFL Draft one week away, the buzz surrounding BYU defensive end Ezekiel Ansah continues to grow.
Thursday, the story of this Ghanaian football phenom occupied a full 15-minute chunk of time on ESPN's SportsCenter, with the program labeling Ansah as "the Cinderella story" of this year's draft.
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The feature told Ansah's tale, recounting his meeting with missionary Ken Frei, who helped convert Ansah to the LDS faith in Ghana. Frei appeared on ESPN, alongside senior-to-be linebacker Kyle Van Noy, as the two described Ansah's progression from homeland soccer player, to wannabe BYU hoopster, to Cougar track athlete, to football star under Bronco Mendenhall's tutelage.
Photos showed a younger Ansah as a neophyte fan in the stands at a BYU football game; Frei said after observing, Ziggy initially considered himself "too delicate" for the brutal sport on the gridiron. Van Noy helped tell the now-familiar story relating Ansah's unfamiliarity with the proper way to put on a football uniform.
"It was fun to see someone so big, and so new at the game," said Van Noy. "Once he figured it out...he has really made a big impression, not only here at BYU, but in the (NFL) scouts' minds, as well."
Asked when he knew Ansah had pro potential, Van Noy said "I knew it from day one; how big he was, how fast he was, he just needed to learn the game more."
"We all saw the potential...we saw that on tape; (we said) 'this man's a freak; he's going to be pretty good.' We started working with him more, and eventually he just found a love for the game, and a burning desire to be great at it. He's done a pretty good job at it."
ESPN assembled a panel of draft experts to discuss Ansah's pro potential. Draft gurus Mel Kiper and Todd McShay, former NFL GM Bill Polian and former all-pro defensive end Jason Taylor all broke down Ansah's game in glowing terms.
Kiper: "I've never in 35 years seen somebody go from undrafted free agent to top five, top ten--that's where Ziggy Ansah is right now."
"(His physical tools) are incredible, and they had to be, to go from undrafted, off-the-radar to (Kiper's projected) second pick overall, fifth pick overall, certainly in the top ten. To have this meteoric rise, you had to special, and unique, and a freakish talent. To be 6'5 1/2", 271 pounds, to close as quickly (as he does)...to see that type of skill level...to see that energy level...all those things have allowed to do something that...has never happened before, in my opinion."
"This is a rarity; this is something we've never seen before, and I think there will be some reluctance to move him up that high on a lot of boards...but at the end of the day, that's where he's going to go: in the top ten."
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McShay: "You can see that the potential is there with him...the improvement he made (in 2012) is just remarkable."
"His game now is power; he can convert speed or quickness to power so effectively for a guy who, again, has such little experience."
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Polian: "He's going to succeed, and the likelihood of his success is pretty darn good."
"He just finds a way to get off a block, and escapes from it naturally. In the space of about six weeks (in the 2012 season), without ever having played the game before at the highest level, he learned how to defeat a double-team. It takes people years to do that. He's a natural athlete. It would take a lot of courage to make this pick, you're going to be criticized, but to me, this is a guy that has it all. 'Cinderella' is going to break the glass slipper into smithereens. This is a tough, physical, ferocious guy."
"He's more physical than Jason Pierre-Paul; this is a little bit of a Bruce Smith comparison, physically. He has the ability to transfer speed into power--(snaps fingers)--like that. That's the rarest commodity to find."
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Taylor: "You see all the physical tools, you see the closing speed. But this is a guy who is still in his infancy in football. When he gets to the NFL level and gets NFL coaching...I think the sky's the limit for this guy."
"It's scary to watch him, how big and strong he is."
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Earlier Thursday, Ansah was the subject of an ESPN SportsScience segment that resulted in Ziggy performing best among the defensive ends analyzed this season, and included in the best DE performances over the last number of seasons.
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Photo: Courtesy BYU Photo
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