Tony Gibson: "We've Got Our Work Cut Out"
No. 21 NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson met with the media ahead of the Wolfpack's upcoming matchup versus No. 20 Wake Forest.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Gibson’s interview.
“They have big wideouts. [A.T] Perry is obviously a really good player, [Donavon] Greene’s a really good player, and [Sam Hartman] is special. I think he’s the best quarterback in our league. He’s poised. He throws the deep ball really well and runs their offense. I’ve got a lot of respect for Warren Ruggiero and Dave Clawson. Those guys have done a great job of building that. That offense is lethal. We’ve got our work cut out.”
“I was watching the [Wake Forest/Louisville] game live. It was crazy. I know a kid like Sam Hartman; he’s a competitor. He’ll bounce back. They had them all rattled for a minute. Every ball that bounced bounced right to Louisville. You’ve got to give Louisville credit. They did a great job defensively as well.”
“We got beat on three deep balls. That was the whole key to that. They had 46 yards at halftime and minus-four in the third quarter. [They had] 42 yards for three quarters then 251 in the second quarter all on three big pass plays. We’ve got to get it fixed. It happens at times, but we can’t have that happen three times to us. One, I can see, but we can’t have that happen to us.”
“Derrek [Pitts] will be fine. He’s in the rotation. We know he can make plays. He’s going to be just fine for us. I’m not worried about him.”
“Savion [Jackson] was having a hell of a year. It’s bad. I hate it for the kid. I hate it for our defense and our football team. He was playing at an extremely high level. This is two years in a row at around the same time of year where this has happened to him. He’ll rehab and get back. Surgery went well, so I’m looking forward to getting him back and getting him ready for spring ball.”
“I think that, again, it goes back to that first play against Texas Tech. That was kind of [Payton Wilson’s] opening moment where he went and made a nice hit on their quarterback. Since that time, he’s played extremely, extremely well. He was our defensive player of the week. He had some big tackles, big sacks, and key moments last week, and I think he sparked us there in the fourth quarter.”
“If I had that, I’d be making a lot of money giving my secrets away. They’ve been doing this for a few years, and everybody struggles. You try to pressure when they’ve got big wideouts that go up over you and catch the ball; you stay back, and then the run game becomes an issue. It’s all about the mix. We can’t just go in with one thing in mind because, if that doesn’t work, we don’t have anything to fall back on. We’ve got to keep preparing. We have a lot of film on them against us, and we’ve got to go back and study what worked and what didn’t and stay away from the things that hurt us."