NC State football announced this week that fifth-year senior left tackle Emanuel McGirt Jr. and redshirt sophomore center Grant Gibson had won the two vacant starting positions on the offensive line.

Both are former four-star prospects, but they took very different paths toward a possible first career start.

McGirt was a highly prized offensive tackle from Durham (N.C.) Hillside High, who Rivals.com rated as the No. 196 player in the country in the class of 2015. After briefly committing to North Carolina, McGirt opened his recruitment up and eventually picked NC State over Georgia and Virginia Tech.

After redshirting while All-American Joe Thuney manned the left tackle spot in 2015, McGirt spent the next two years dealing with a couple of injuries. It was not until his redshirt junior campaign that McGirt felt healthy.

Now he’s in line to start at left tackle.

“It’s been tough, but I feel like it’s made me a better man. I wouldn’t change it,” McGirt said.

He acknowledged that there was a point where he had doubt, but he never questioned his raw abilities.

“I know I am talented enough to do the job,” he said.

It may not have been how McGirt envisioned his career going, but he’s content with where it is at now.

“I thought I would come in and be the guy,” McGirt said. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way, and that’s all right. I’m fine with my journey.”

Gibson signed with NC State out of Mallard Creek High in Charlotte fully intending to play defensive tackle. After redshirting in 2017, Gibson appeared poised to land on the two-deep last fall.

Two games into the season however, Gibson was asked to move to offensive line. The good news for NC State is he played center at Mallard Creek on an offense that was run exclusively from the shotgun.

“I was like, ‘I haven’t snapped in like two years.’ It took one snap and it came right back to me,” Gibson recalled.

Gibson is trying to replace one of the greatest centers to play at NC State in Garrett Bradbury, who is in line to start as a rookie for the Minnesota Vikings.

Both McGirt and Gibson are aiming to fill large shoes. McGirt is replacing All-ACC tackle Tyler Jones. NC State also lost All-American left guard Terronne Prescod. Hence many may have questions about the unit entering the fall.

McGirt noted that in 2016, when Dwayne Ledford arrived to coach the offensive line after Mike Uremovich had left, NC State had similar questions and turned out alright.

“As a group that makes us work harder,” Gibson added. “Whoever fills those spots this year, I feel like we’ll have a great squad.”

Both are hoping that new offensive line coach John Garrison will have as smooth a transition as Ledford enjoyed. Ledford left Raleigh to become the offensive coordinator at Louisville.

McGirt and Gibson both noted one trait that Garrison preaches: effort.

“If you don’t give great effort during a drill, you’re going back,” Gibson said. “That’s something that I like because you can’t take any snaps off in a game, so why would you take one off during practice?"

One of the questions NC State fans will have going into the fall is how will the new co-offensive coordinators work between running backs coach Des Kitchings and receivers coach George McDonald. The two were hired to replace Eli Drinkwitz, who became the head coach at Appalachian State.

NC State head coach Dave Doeren has said that Kitchings will do most of the play-calling but McDonald will handle third downs and two-minute drills. Kitchings will be upstairs in the coaches’ box while McDonald will be on the field. The two thus far have seamlessly split the duties.

“No ego, so I’m not concerned about that,” Kitchings added.

Kitchings noted that one of the areas of emphasis for the offseason was expanding the field with all the skill players.

“Just trying to use the whole complement of our offense from our tight ends to our receivers to our running backs and forcing the defense to have to defend the entire length of the field,” he explained. “Whatever they give us, we try to find that as coaches when you are watching film. What is the defense giving you and try to exploit that and take advantage of it.”

Kitchings cited good progress in getting the offense installed during preseason camp despite having to deal with various lineup combinations while also trying to find a starting quarterback.

Now it’s just time to test it out in a real game.

“We’ve fine-tuned it, we’re working situations [this week], walk-through Friday,” he said. “Then let the kids go play.

"Are there going to be mistakes? Certainly there are some coming with a young group. But I do believe we have enough talent to go forth and put a great effort.”

There were a lot of “or” on the NCSU depth chart at running back. Three in total.

Sophomore Ricky Person Jr., redshirt freshman Trent Pennix and true freshmen Jordan Houston and Zonovan Knight are all listed as possible starters for the opener against East Carolina.

Kitchings has used a running-back-by-committee approach in the past and is not afraid to go back to it this season for his group. He’s quick to note that none of them have much experience.

“Pennix played some last year but he took a redshirt,” Kitchings said. “Ricky was in and out of the lineup. Then you have Zonovan who’s been here for a semester. You get the feeling he’s been here for a long time, but he hasn’t lined up [in a game], and Jordan Houston hasn’t lined up yet.”

Although the two newest running backs have not taken an official carry in front of almost 60,000 fans, they potentially add a big-play element to a group that overall is one of the fastest running backs rooms Kitchings has ever coached.

“Particularly with Jordan and Zonovan, [they] give our offense some juice that can hopefully create some explosive plays in the run game and even in the passing game because those guys catch the ball well,” Kitching said. “It will bring something to the offense and allow us to create some more explosive plays and score some points.”

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