Gibson Starting From Scratch As New Defensive Coordinator

NC State made its first major change after the conclusion of the 2019 season with the dismissal of defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable. Shortly thereafter, Tony Gibson was promoted into the role and has already begun overhauling the defense as the calendar starts to change over to 2020.

“We’re blowing everything up,” Gibson said. “We’re going to start over. We’re not going to be West Virginia’s defense. We’re not going to be Wisconsin’s defense. We’re not going to be what NC State was. We’re going to build this thing around the talent that we have here.”

Head coach Dave Doeren announced Gibson’s promotion within two days of Huxtable’s dismissal, a surprising move considering most schools’ tendencies to search outside of the current staff for a new coordinator. Gibson’s interview managed to win Doeren over, though, and the Wolfpack will have a brand new defense moving forward. 

“We had some talks right after Coach Huxtable was let go about the way we were moving forward,” Gibson said. “I think [coach Doeren] knew what he wanted to do. He asked my vision of what I would do, and I explained and went through the process. I assured all the kids and all the fans that it’s going to look totally different than how it did a year ago.”

National Signing Day marked the first steps toward the progress for the future. The Wolfpack saw seven defensive players sign their National Letters of Intent. Gibson’s focus when bringing the new players in, especially when it came to the secondary, revolved around one major aspect of any player’s skillset: speed.

“We had to try to build this thing with speed and get more guys that were athletic enough to go play corner or safety,” Gibson said. “In the back five positions, I want to be able to take a kid that’s a nickel, corner, or safety and be able to move those guys and use them as needed. We wanted guys that could run with good cover skills and also could go back, be a returner, and do some different things that can help the football team.”

Though the desire to start from scratch is there, obviously the Pack isn’t starting from nothing. State’s defensive personnel has components that, despite the whole not being the sum of its parts in the 2019 campaign, can fit into the new mold being developed. Having been on the staff for last season, Gibson has been able to examine what worked and intends to exemplify its strengths.

“There’s always a starting point, and we have a pretty good idea of what that’s going to look like,” Gibson said. “Jeffrey Gunter is a kid that we’ve got really high expections for. Alim [McNeill] had a really good year and played a lot of football. We’ve got Payton [Wilson], Levi [Jones], Brock [Miller], and Isaiah [Moore], so a lot of linebackers that have played a lot of football.”

Less than half of the Pack’s newest recruits step onto campus in January, and the spring practices should begin shortly thereafter. Gibson will have his opportunity to experiment and retool a new defensive scheme with most of his fall force in tow. After several injuries that crushed State’s hope of retaining its identity from last season, Gibson has the opportunity to install his vision. He can seemingly only go up from the Huxtable-led 2019.

“I feel really good about what we have here,” Gibson said. “It was good to be here for a year, sit back, evaluate, and see the strong pieces. We may need to move different players around, but it’s just getting guys that fit our scheme, and that’s what we tried to address with this recruiting class.”