NC State DC Tony Gibson: "I Like Where We are At"
NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson seems pleased with where his unit is at this point of fall practice. He recently discussed the defense with the media!
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
With so many experienced guys and so many starters back, has this fall camp been a matter of perfecting the scheme which you guys already knew – or throwing more things at those guys because they're so experienced?
Yeah, just more perfecting the scheme, getting guys in the right position, and cleaning up technique-wise. That's the biggest thing is get them in a good stance, get their eyes right. What happens with that is we allow them to play so much faster now that they know it.
I don't want to add a lot of stuff. I want our guys, number one, to play fast, play hard, play physical, and all those things. I don't believe in creating more coverage, more blitzes, more fronts, different stuff like that. I want to perfect what we do, so that's been a really big emphasis for us.
After the first full scrimmage, where would you say your guys are? I know the open is a long way away, but after that first scrimmage, how would you rate your guys?
I think right now we're playing extremely hard. I like where we're at. We still got some position battles going on at different spots, so that's good to see.
Then we know who the guys are that have played a lot of football and have secured that spot as a one, but every day is an interview for those guys as well. We're not just going to crown a guy, "This is your spot and you could play however, and you're going to keep that spot."
There's a challenge every day for those guys to keep getting better, and you've had that, especially at the linebacker group with Drake and Isaiah and Payton. Those guys, they're playing extremely well right now, they know they're playing off of each other. It's been good to see.
Have there been any guys who have exceeded expectations for you so far this fall camp?
I'll tell you the guy, and obviously he had a lot of good pub coming in here, and when we recruited him and got him out of the portal we knew what kind of player he was off of film, is Cory Durden.
To actually get to coach him and see him in live situations, he's a guy that is really, really going to help this football team. He's playing extremely well right now, playing hard, and is just a great kid to be around. It just brings a little bit of an older, more experienced guy into that d-line room, which we needed with Alim moving on last year, so I really like where he's at.
Jaylon Scott has really stepped his game up at linebacker. In the backend, again, a new guy, Cyrus Fagan, Derreck Pitts, are guys that we'll be able to count on, will be in the rotation and play a lot of snaps for us.
A lot of the transfer guys that have experience coming in are the guys that really are standing out right now that we just didn't know much about.
To follow-up on Durden, is he similar to anybody you've had here the last couple of years in terms of playing style?
He's different in a lot of ways. The kid is 6-foot-5. To be honest with you, in all the years in this scheme, he's just different than really anybody I've had because he can go inside and anchor down and play nose, he can go outside play a four-technique, he can go out on the edge and be a pass rusher.
He is just a guy that can do a lot of different things for us, and that's unique because some guys are just nose guards, or d-tackle types, and then we have our ends, and he can do it all. So he's just different than anybody we have on the roster right now and with the size as well.
A guy like Davin Vann, Davin plays both for us, but Davin's 6’2”, where Corey’s 6-foot-5, 300 pounds. He brings a different piece to it.
How much does having a guy like Chris Ingram back in the secondary healthy and playing help that unit -- not only from his abilities on the field, but what he brings from a leadership standpoint?
Yeah, Chris was one of my favorite guys on this whole football team. Leadership-wise, he brings energy to practice, is very smart, knows the scheme, and can help bring that secondary together. I think that, missing him a year ago and him sitting on the sideline coaching and doing some things and helping guys out, I think that's really helped him grow as well.
He knows the scheme and just to have him, he's almost like a comfort blanket back there for a lot of guys and everybody looks to him in the back-end, so I’m extremely, extremely happy to have him back, and I look forward to him having his best year.
Tanner Ingle is one of the top guys returning in secondary. Could you tell a difference? Can you tell the difference on the defense when he wasn't out there, with the time he missed last year?
Yes, and I think I'm right on this, but when Tanner played, I think we were undefeated. When Tanner did not play, now can we say that's all the reason? No, but he brings confidence. He plays a position that's a very important position in this defense, and you have be a run stopper [and] you have to be able to play some coverage.
We blitzed that guy some, and guys plugged in and did a pretty good job with it. Tyler Baker-Williams moved over there at times. We had Rakeim until he got injured; we had Boykin.
We had a bunch of guys over there that were playing a position, and some played it well in some games, and sometimes we didn't, but that consistency that Tanner brings again was... it's huge to get him back.
We have to keep him healthy and keep him in games. That's the key for him.
How much does it help heading into a fall camp to have that entire linebacker core, especially with some of the leaders you have in that unit, all back together to, like you said, just build on what they learned last year?
Yeah. It's a unique spot that we're in right now with all those guys. Isaiah has been a three-year starter, Payton is coming back is really a three-year starter, Drake has been playing a bunch as a freshman, a two-year starter.
Those guys... the key to this defense is obviously, with three-down, we have to create a lot of plays from the linebacker position, and those guys, not only do they know what to do in their spot, they know what everybody else has to do. So they're getting guys lined up and they're fitting well off of each other.
Just for example, on the zone scheme, one time we'll fit it one way and we get the same play five plays later, and then we may fit it differently just because those guys are seeing something and they know how to play off of each other and communicate it. It helps having that experience, and they're able to take chances and shoot their shot and not play timid.