Yale took a chance on Delco’s Abu Kamara. Four years later, he’s catching the NFL’s eye.

Kevin Cahill slightly leaned back in his chair — which was visible on a Zoom call — as he recollected a play Yale defensive back Abu Kamara made two weeks ago in practice.

The 47-year-old coach, who took over the program after longtime fixture Tony Reno stepped down in February, said a quarterback tried to fit a pass over Kamara, an Interboro High graduate. What came next is etched into Cahill’s mind.

“He took one step, jumped up, and caught it one-handed,” Cahill told The Inquirer this week, ”and almost flipped back over. It was one of the more impressive athletic things I’ve seen any athlete do."

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Kamara, who said he was “one of the last kids that committed” in Yale’s 2023 recruiting class, has thrived in a hybrid nickel/safety role for the Bulldogs’ defense. His team faces Penn at Franklin Field on Friday (7 p.m., ESPNU).

Last season, after finishing with 76 tackles (6½ for loss), 3½ sacks, three forced fumbles, and two interceptions, Kamara was named the Ivy League defensive player of the year; a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, given to the top defensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision; and was named a first-team All-American by Stats Perform, FCS Football Central, and AFCA.

Cahill loves “how hard [Kamara] plays” and says NFL teams have taken notice. Kamara’s penchant for making plays stems from a mindset that was instilled by his Yale coaches.

“One of our coaches always says, ‘If you make the plays that come to you, you’ll be an All-American.’ So that’s my mindset with it,” Kamara said. “I don’t try to force myself to make any plays, force myself to do anything outstanding. I just do my job … and obviously, when the ball comes around me, [I] find a way to make a play.

“That’s the mindset I’ve been carrying [in] my four years here. Just do your job and make the plays that come to you.”

Kamara was a two-way star at Interboro, and had a record-setting year at running back as a senior. Interest from top college football programs did not follow.

Yale was the first school to “take a chance on me,” Kamara said. Back then, Cahill, who was Yale’s offensive coordinator in 2022, said the program initially wanted him at running back. Kamara was given the choice to decide between playing running back or defensive back, and chose the latter because of “the longevity of the position.”

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A connection to an Interboro coach, who played for Cahill at Maine, helped strengthen the relationship between Kamara and Yale.

“The faith that Coach Reno had in me as a player … and the way my position coach [Jay Anderson] and my defense coordinator [Sean McGowan] cared for me and the way they wanted to see me grow, it really meant a lot to me,” Kamara said. “You go to these other programs and it’s like, if you’re not developed as a freshman, you kind of get shoved under the rug, but here at Yale, it’s, ‘we try to make sure that every player is developed from the moment they walk on campus to when they’re getting their degree.’”

This season, Kamara is adding another accolade to his personal resume. At Yale, one athlete is selected to be captain per sport and the Bulldogs’ football team has a long history of captains that traces back to 1873. Kamara was named captain of Yale’s 153rd team in December, and each captain of Yale’s varsity sports takes a photo in front of their historic fence.

“That’s the biggest honor you could have as a Yale athlete. Your team votes you as captain. It has nothing to do with the coaching staff. It is all the players,” Cahill said. “They are put in a room. They are the vote, and whatever comes out, that is who the captain will be. … For him to be named captain, you can see why he is, and he’s done a good job. He does a really good job of embracing other ideas and other thoughts from other leaders on the team.”

Cahill was still Lehigh’s head coach when his team played Yale last season, and as he was scouting Yale’s kickoff team, No. 4 for the Bulldogs crushed the returner. The hit was so loud on film that Cahill made sure to account for Kamara “on everything we do.”

Kamara says he was always an aggressive kid growing up in Philly, and had the mentality, “if you can’t hit, you can’t play football.” That mentality has followed him to Yale.

“He is flying around sideline to sideline, no matter where it is. He’s going to track the ball down or find a way to get there. He brings a physicality with him too. Like when he tackles you, you’re going feel it,” Cahill said. “I think his length is really impressive. It’s an attribute that he has that not many have with how long his arms are, and his wingspan is able to do a lot of different things.”

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There has been a noticeable uptick of NFL scouts visiting Yale practice to see Kamara. “Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder,” Cahill said, since Yale plays him anywhere from safety to nickel to linebacker. NFL scouts’ opinions vary on Kamara: “Some love him, some really, really like him, and some are [saying], ‘OK, we’re going to continue to watch as the season goes on,’” the Yale coach noted.

While Kamara is focused on the season, the Interboro grad concedes that playing in the NFL has been “a dream of mine since I was a kid.” Cahill says Kamara reminds him of Jaguars nine-year veteran linebacker Foyesade Oluokun, who played collegiately at Yale.

“I mean, there’s been one NFL player out of Interboro, Vince Papale, but that was way back when,” Kamara said, laughing. “To change that narrative and give kids hope in my area that, ‘Hey, you can go play Division I ball. You can go chase whatever.’ Not even just football. Whatever career path you want to chase, don’t limit yourself just because you went to a small school in Delaware County.”

Before he makes a decision about his future, a visit back to Philadelphia on Friday is up next. When Yale last visited Philly two years ago, he put on a show, finishing with seven tackles, one sack, one interception, and one forced fumble.

There will be plenty of family, friends, old teammates and classmates, and former teammates in attendance. They showed a lot of love to Kamara two years ago, and the defensive back will have a large cheering crowd that he estimates “1,500 to 2,000 Yale fans in Franklin Field on Friday.”

“I told all the guys, although it’s an away game, it’ll feel like a home game for us,” Kamara said. “A lot of (my former) teachers missed that game (two years ago), so they made it a definite to be at this year’s game against Penn. But I think it’ll be fun. It’ll be a good environment. It’ll feel like you know playing high school ball again. … I’m really excited to see a lot of old friends, old family, everybody.”