2020 NFL Draft Prospect Interview: Zachary Cofrancesco, DB, University of New Haven

• Name: Zachary Cofrancesco
• Height: 5’10
• Weight: 186
• Position: Safety
• College: University of New Haven
• Twitter: @zachcofran

Tell us about your hometown, and what you love most about it?

• My hometown is East Haven, CT and what I love most about it is that it’s where my family is. Knowing there is always a place I can call home there is a great feeling.

List these three in order of importance and why: Film Study, Strength and Conditioning and Practice?

• All three are extremely important, but if I had to choose I would go:

– Film Study 

– Practice

– Strength and Conditioning 

Watching film on both yourself and the opponent helps tremendously in bettering yourself and recognizing opponent’s formations and plays.

What do you worry about, and why?

• I worry about the team, because at the end of the day no matter how great one or two people are it’s a TEAM sport. Everyone has to be about it, not just talk about it.

Give me an example of when you failed at something. How did you react and how did you overcome failure?

• I failed at receiving a scholarship out of high school and I overcame this by walking on at Long Island University and earning a scholarship as well as earning a scholarship to play my senior year at UNH.

What do your teammates say is your best quality?

• My heart for the game. Always wanting to learn more and giving everything I got whether it’s in season or off season.

Who is the best player you have ever played against in college?

• Kyle Ward, one of the fastest and shiftiest guys I’ve ever seen.

What would your career be if you couldn’t play football? 

• Either a football coach or a stock broker.

Room, desk and car – which do you clean first?

• Car

If there was a disaster and you could either save three strangers or one family member, which would you choose and why?

• Easily one family member, you never turn your back on family.

If you could be any television or movie character, who would you be and why?

•  Vin Diesel, because he’s a beast.

Tell me about your biggest adversity in life and how you’ve dealt with or overcome it?

• I broke my foot senior year of high school and during the spring season my freshman year of college I broke my foot in the same exact spot again. I overcame this by never giving up and just working even harder once I recovered.

What is your most embarrassing moment?

•  I was about 9 or 10 and my mom asked me to make her a cup of coffee, I asked her if she wanted milk, she said yes, so I poured it in the coffee machine because I didn’t know you put it in after the coffee was brewed. needless to say the cup of coffee didn’t come out well.

What was the most memorable play of your collegiate career?

• Tackling the WR with my teammate’s Jamel Johnson and Jake Carlock at the one yard line as time expired to win the NE-10 conference championship last year.

What song best describes your work ethic?

• Till I Collapse by Eminem

What is the most important trait you can have (Physical or Non-Physical) to help you succeed at the next level? 

• Technique, you can be the fastest or strongest guy on the field, but if you have bad technique, you won’t make it very far.

If you could bring one person back from the dead for one day, who would it be and why?

• My grandfather because I know my mother and grandmother would love to see him again even if it were just for a day.

If you were to open a dance club, what would you name it? 

•  Cofran’s

Who is the most underrated player in the NFL? 

•  Damontae Kazee, tied for league leader in INT’s and I doubt too many people have even heard of him before.

Would you rather be liked or respected, and why?

• Respected because it’ll take you farther than just being liked.

What player who had his career derailed by off-field issues do you feel for the most and why?

• Josh Gordon, because I thought he was an amazing player and had the potential to be one of the greats, but made some bad choices that cost him a big chunk of his career.

Do you love to win, or hate to lose?

• Hate to lose

Who has been the biggest influence on your life and explain why?

• My dad, he has worked extremely hard to give me the opportunity to have a better life than him and has taught me to be a man.