There was a point during spring practice where redshirt freshman defensive lineman Ibrahim Kante was flat-out frustrated.
Kante was going through a cycle of not living up to his standards, getting upset and then those emotions worsened his play. The NC State coaches noticed it too. Kante is giving NCSU head coach Dave Doeren a new reason to notice him.
Doeren bluntly said recently that Kante was bad in the spring, but he has turned the corner during fall camp in August. The Wolfpack coaches rewarded the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder from Harlem, N.Y., with being second-string at defensive end going into the season opener against James Madison on Saturday.
“In the spring, I was thinking more and wasn’t playing well because I had a bad attitude about everything,” Kante said. “I just wasn’t a good player at the time.
“This summer, I really tried to focus on getting better with the D-Line. The improvements have shown on the field.”
The Wolfpack coaches moved Kante from defensive end to defensive tackle during the spring, due to injuries. Being able to play both positions have helped increase Kante’s versatility. At the time of the position change, he had more of a pity party for himself.
“I have to play hard at any position they put me in,” Kante said. “My mentality was kind of weak at the time, and I had to change it.”
Defensive end was a heavy emphasis for NC State in the class of 2017. Things move fast in college football, and already four of Kante’s recruiting classmates have washed out at NC State. He’s learned quickly through his travails that the mentally tough keep on moving up the depth chart.
Kante attended Cardinal Hayes High in Bronx, N.Y., and then spent a post-graduate year at Trinity Pawling in Pawling, N.Y. Rivals.com ranked him as a two-star prospect, but assistant coach George McDonald found him and he eventually signed with NCSU over Buffalo, Temple, Boston College and Rutgers among others.
“When NC State first contacted me, I knew about the D-Line [tradition],” Kante said. “For some reason, I always knew about the NC State D-Line. Mario Williams was a guy I watched when in high school.”
Part of Kante’s difficult transition to college football was that he was as low as 214 pounds last year.
“I’m around 250-253 right now,” Kante said. “They want me to get to 280 pounds because they said if I can get to that weight, it will be no problem for me to play every down.”
The 19-year-old Kante was able to observe senior defensive ends Bradley Chubb and Kentavius Street, who went in the first round and fourth round of the NFL Draft respectively.
“They went hard every day and they show you how to be great every day,” Kante said. “They took every rep seriously. You never saw them down, always up.”
The adjustment from Harlem to Raleigh also took some time. The days of taking subways around town were over.
“You go from the big city where you have people every block and stores everywhere, to know where it is open and you have to drive,” Kante said. “It’s definitely different. I have family down here and my teammates have helped raise me. It’s been perfect.”
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