Tony Gibson: "We Have to Jump Back on the Horse and Ride Again"
No. 14 NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson met with the media ahead of the Wolfpack's upcoming matchup versus Florida State.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Gibson’s interview.
“[The defense graded out] okay. We had some missed opportunities. The kids played their tails off. We’ve got to do a better job coaching. The drive before the half, that was 100 percent on me. I should have been more aggressive. I tried to be but got spooked a little. They threw the ball downfield, and we had an opportunity to make a play, and we didn’t. Overall, our kids played extremely hard. You could see the passion that they play with, but at times, we’ve got to play a little smarter. We have to just do our job. I think we started pressing a little bit too much, and again, that falls on me and not the kids."
“Every play matters. It’s a game of inches. We had a direct hit on the quarterback on about the four- or five-yard line with the ball exposed. We kind of hesitated a little bit, and we could have had an opportunity there to get a ball out. What we have to do is make this a learning experience. I told the kids on Sunday, ‘Nobody feels sorry for us right now.’ What we have to do is jump back on the horse and ride again. We’ve got to get ready. We’re a little bit pissed off. It’s going to be a great atmosphere Saturday night, and I'm looking forward to watching the guys bounce back.”
“[Jordan Travis] is a very athletic kid. He can run. The one thing that I see him doing now is scrambling to throw the ball, so we have to do a great job of plastering on coverage once he breaks contain. We have to do a great job with our pass rush lanes of keeping him in the pocket because he is a threat to get out and throw the ball down the field. He throws the ball really well on the run, so we have to do a great job with that and make sure that we stay locked in on our coverage and make sure we play within the scheme.”
"I don’t get paid money to ref. I know my opinion, but we’ll leave it at that. It was really close. I don’t know if they were reviewing where his knee was down or if they were reviewing whether the ball was out or not.”
"This is the best Florida State team that we’ve played since I’ve been here. We faced them the last two years [since I’ve been] a coordinator, but this is the first time we’re facing Travis. He makes them different. They’re skilled at wideout. They’ve got a three-headed monster at running back. We’re going to be up for a challenge. This is the best offense to date that we have played."
"It got a little scary; that’s for sure. We were an injury away from Coach [Brian] Mitchell, [Joe DeForest], or Freddie [Aughtry-Lindsay] going in. We had to be careful with what we were doing. Our guys bounce back. They are great kids. They are fun to coach. It’s been a rough couple of days for them, and hopefully we take it out on somebody on Saturday night.”
“[Cyrus Fagan] was playing well. He made a couple of huge tackles. The tackle down on the goal line on the quarterback was a big play for us holding them to a field goal. We need everybody out there. We need to have a great week of practice and put it behind us. That game is over. Let’s move on to the next one."