Tanner Ingle Settling In At Free Safety, Impressed With Drake Thomas
Tanner Ingle was able to work his way into the starting lineup at nickel as a true freshman following a strong fall camp. He ended up starting seven games, totaling 34 tackles and three tackles for a loss.
However, NC State has developed additional depth at nickel, which led to Ingle changing positions to free safety.
“[Stephen Griffin] and also Tyler Baker-Williams... [they are] in a good competition at nickel,” Dave Doeren said Tuesday afternoon. “We have good depth there... Jalen Frazier coming in. We’ve just had some good DB recruiting classes of late and it's helped us.
“For Tanner, I think he’s probably our best contact player, so getting him in that free safety spot like we had Josh Jones where he can fit in the box and make a lot of plays will help our defense.”
The move is also big with senior Tim Kidd-Glass departing the program over the weekend. Kidd-Glass spent three seasons at free safety, starting nine games in 2017.
Now it appears the position is Ingle’s to lose, and he’s doing everything he can to make sure he’s as ready as possible to contribute for the Wolfpack.
"I'm taking it a day at a time,” Ingle said. “I'm trying to still learn the playbook totally, the ins and outs. Other than that, everything is going pretty well.
“I need to learn the playbook better, and I'm trying to improve my coverage skills, form tackling. Nothing is perfect."
There has been a lot of turnover defensively for NC State over the last two seasons. Multiple NFL draft picks have departed the program, but Ingle believes the defense has made strides over the last year to where it could be a potential strength this year in Raleigh.
“We look pretty good as a defense,” he stated. “It's a big improvement so far, from what I can see. A huge improvement from the secondary, as far as what we can do with the turnovers and interceptions. We're doing what we're supposed to do in coverage, so we've had a big improvement to this year from last year."
Has a leader emerged on the defensive side of the ball?
"Jarius Morehead is a returning starter, and he's been a huge leader on our defense,” Ingle said. “He runs everything.”
Last year it was Ingle who turned heads in the fall as a true freshman, and during the first week of camp a consistent name being referenced is true freshman linebacker Drake Thomas. Ingle also mentioned Thomas when asked to name a young player who could impact this season.
“We have a few linebackers that are emerging, coming up,” Ingle said. "Drake Thomas has been playing very well, but he's still learning the playbook.
"He's real physical. He's learning the playbook fast, and he's just doing everything right, right now. I feel like he's a little above what freshmen are when they usually come in because he's been picking up things fast."
Ingle is optimistic about the defense -- not just for this year, but also going forward. However, the goal is to improve each day.
"There's a lot more depth,” he said. “There’s a lot more speed on the defense than in previous years, [but] we can improve on everything, really. Nothing is perfect right now.”