On Thursday, NC State football defensive coordinator Tony Gibson broke down the Wolfpack defense ahead of the Sept. 19 season opener at home against Wake Forest.
Gibson, in his first season as the sole DC for the Pack and also its linebackers coach, admitted it has been a "different experience in fall camp," and called it "unique." Overall, he is pleased with how his side of the ball has handled the obstacles thrown their way by the COVID-19 pandemic, which included a pause in NC State football-related activities during the middle of fall camp.
"Really like this group of kids," Gibson said. "They are hungry. They want to win. They want to do stuff the right way."
Below are some of the highlights from Gibson's Zoom session with the media, broken down by position group.
WATCH & LISTEN: NC State Coordinators Talk To The Media
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Defensive Line
On Penn State grad transfer Daniel Joseph:
"We needed to get an older guy or two, we were losing so many good guys last year. That was a priority for us.
"We felt that we needed an older guy to come in, so when his name popped up in the [transfer] portal, we jumped all over him. … We were looking. We had some options, and we felt like that he was the best fit for what we were doing.
"We brought him on an official visit, sat him down and talked a lot of football with him. ... We got down to business. He’s just coming here to play ball and start on his graduate program. We gave him everything academically he needed, and we showed him what we were going to do on the football side of it and how we were going to use him.
"Once we saw him, he definitely was a guy that we wanted and was a guy that we thought would fit well.”
On finding the right fits for three-man fronts:
“It’s pretty unique in the scheme that we run, and at times they are going to be in four-technique, they are going to be playing five-technique at end, three-technique at times.
"We need bigger bodies. 4-3 [alignment] defensive ends that are 225 pounds are hard to fit in this system. The guys that we can move around and put at nose guard like [redshirt freshman] C.J. [Clark] and also put him out at end, they are going to have to be able to hold the point for us, have to be able to penetrate doable teams and fight in there.
"Really, all of our guys we feel can go in and play inside as well as outside. We like the goup of guys that we got. ... [Sophomore] Savion Jackson is a big-body kid that we got that can do it. [Redshirt freshman] Terrell Dawkins is a guy obviously we would need to leave at end, but if you go through that list of guys, we've got eight or nine guys that we feel we can move inside as well, and that’s counting our young kids.”
Linebackers
Overall thoughts:
“Last year was obviously decimated by injuries at that position as well. We lost a lot of guys. A lot of guys got to play, which is a good thing now. At the time, we didn’t think it was good.
"Obviously now a year later … I think about every guy in that room that was here last year played at some point. There's a lot of experience coming back, a lot of talented guys coming back.
"[Redshirt sophomore] Payton Wilson led our team in tackles and started in one game. Very excited about him, very excited about [sophomore] Drake [Thomas], [redshirt junior] Isaiah Moore, [senior] Louis Acceus, [redshirt junior] Levi [Jones], [redshirt sophomore] Calvin Hart, so we’re very deep. [Sophomore] Jaylon Scott is another guy. … I feel really good about those guys. They’ve had a really good camp, and I'm excited to watch them play.”
On finding snaps for the linebackers and Vi Jones' role:
“Levi is a guy, he could be an every-down linebacker for us. He could be in our dime package at linebacker, as a rush guy, as a cover guy. He’s very, very athletic.
“There’s some guys that obviously don’t fit on third down with what we want to do and how we want to play in that linebacker room, but we can get big if people get big personnel with us … we can do that now. We can get to a four-down look with a linebacker being a field end or rush end, per se.
"We feel like we got a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things. The two guys that have gotten some looks are Jaylon Scott and Levi Jones, moving around and playing some different spots to get that fourth linebacker for us.”
Secondary
On safeties/nickels:
“[Junior] Tanner Ingle and [junior] Tyler Baker-Williams are two guys that have played a ton of football.
"Was excited about [sophomore] Jakeen Harris as the year moved on last year, and he got thrown into the fire and thought he responded well at times. Now it’s an every-down role for him and I like where he’s at. When we started spring ball, he was showing flashes of he was confident, a lot more confident, able to make all the checks, have a voice back there. I really like where he’s at, and he’s continued to do that through fall camp.
“[Redshirt freshman] Khalid Martin is another guy that we were redshirting. We played in the Carolina game and he ended up playing a bunch, started that game, so he’s got experience. And then the other guy is [sophomore] Rakeim Ashford. He’s a guy that you guys haven’t gotten to see yet, but I'm very, very excited about him. … [Freshman] Devan Boykin is another guy, I’m sorry I missed him. [Freshman] Joshua Pierre-Louis is another guy. All those guys playing nickel and safety, we’re excited about.”
On cornerbacks:
“With [junior] Teshaun [Smith] and [redshirt sophomore] Taiyon Palmer, we’ve got [redshirt freshman] Shy Battle, [redshirt sophomore] Malik Dunlap, [sophomore] Cecil Powell, those kids have all grown up so much, and Coach [Brian] Mitchell has done a great job coaching those guys and working technique.
"They’re playing with a lot of confidence as well. I'm excited, still got some youth back there. Going to be exciting to watch them play against Wake.”
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