Grant Gibson: "We Knew We Could Do This"

Aside from a subpar outing against Virginia Tech, NC State’s offensive line has had a very good start to the season. 

One of the key players there has been center Grant Gibson, who spoke to the media via Zoom. Here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say:

Coach Doeren talked about the improvements from week two to week three.  How much of that was pride?

For us, we took the Va. Tech to heart, because we saw that we didn’t play our best football. Our goal each week is just to improve from the past week. So we saw some things on tape that we wanted to fix. We just wanted to go out there and play better as a group. We know that when we get prep each week and do what we need to do, we’re a good group of guys. I think we did a good job of that last week. 

That last drive, Devin is as calm as ever.  How much does that calm everybody else?

It was good for us to see. If you would have seen his face, it was like he didn’t even flinch, it was like ‘Alright, let’s go win.’ I think to have a QB like that is huge. But that’s just how he is. He’s always calm and he’s always trying to stay even the whole game. He doesn’t ever get too high and he doesn’t ever get too low, either. I think that’s what you need from a QB. I was proud of him. He played a great game. I think he led the team and did what he needed to do. 

How are things in the huddle with each play? Are you helping fire guys up, or is that Devin?

As a group, we have a lot of guys on this team that have played a lot of ball. We all kind of knew, ‘We can do this.’ We do a two-minute drill each week, so we were prepped for it. I think as a group, we knew that ‘Alright, if we put our minds to it, we can do this.’ Everybody just looked at one another and was like, alright, let’s go to work. Everybody looked at Devin and he took the lead. I think he did a great job with that. 

What did it mean coming up in a program like Mallard Creek?

It was huge. I remember my first day there in the ninth grade. It’s wild to think about how long ago that was. But I could tell this was one of the best schools in the state. Coach Palmieri, he did a great job with me. And he helped turn me into a great player off the field and on the field. Going to a school like that where you know how to win and you know how to work hard, that’s huge for me. And it helped me out when I first came to State. 

What was the first team meeting like after Virginia Tech? 

After the game, we all knew we didn’t play our best game. So something we do as a team is we’ll look at the film and we’ll own up to it. And that’s what we had to do. We saw that we didn’t play well, but after you watch the film, you have to move on to the next team. So we saw what we messed up on and we knew we had to fix it. So after the film, it’s like, alright, how can we improve our play for the next game? We changed some things up in practice. We realized we needed to fix our technique, and that’s what we worked on last week. I think that’s showed in everything.

I think there were five offside penalties on Pittsburgh.  How much did that help in buying some time? 

I think it helped. I definitely think it slowed them down a little bit because they saw that we were starting to switch up the cadence and things like that. I think it helped us, but I think we just came into the game prep and we knew they were a great group of defensive linemen and we had respect for their games and things that they were doing. We knew that we had to come into this game and play hard. We talked about that the whole week, like ‘Hey guys, we need to come out and play our best game of the year.’

Based off that game-winning drive that Devin led, how much confidence does the team have in him?

I think that drive was huge for him, because he had just been waiting on his time. The one thing about Devin is that even when he didn’t get to play, he was still on the sideline trying to cheer us on. He was just waiting on his turn. We all have faith in Devin and I think that we all saw him grow up and take a huge step forward. He led the team. We saw no flinch in him. It was like, ‘Alright guys, let’s go win.’ To have a QB out there like that is huge. I was proud of him.

Devin mentioned the first thing they do when you get into the end zone is hug a big man. What do you think of that initiative? 

It’s great. Each skill player comes and finds one of us and gives us a huge hug. That’s a coach Beck thing. It means a lot to us up front. We’re just doing our job and we’re glad they come and give us a hug every time.

Why are you guys so effective so far in the red zone compared to last year?

I think that just shows how hard we work in the offseason. This offseason, we saw how we played last year and we recognized that we needed to change some things. We worked hard as a group, even when we went home for quarantine. I think that’s starting to show the hard work that we’ve put in in the offseason.