Exclusive Tony Gibson Q&A, part I

Last week, TheWolfpacker.com sat down with NC State football defensive coordinator Tony Gibson for an exclusive Q&A. Gibson went over each unit of the defense and discussed some of the key performers on the unit.

Here is part I of highlights from that interview.

Tony Gibson Q&A

For the last couple of years you had a lot of continuity. Does it feel a little bit different this year, or maybe simply a matter of some guys moving up the depth chart and continuity remains?

Tony Gibson: “Yeah, I think when we built this a few years back, I think that the core guys are still there. You got Payton Wilson, you got Savion [Jackson], you got CJ Clark, all those guys are the front. The back end with Jakeen Harris, Devan Boykin, Aydan White, Shy Battle.

“So, I feel good about the core group of guys that we have.

“My expectation is to be better than we were a year ago. You never want to go backwards in this game. And I think that we’ve built our roster up, and I don’t expect anything but it’d be better.”

Does having that core return plus experienced backups allow you to keep things rolling this spring vs. teaching the defense?

Gibson: “So some of these guys, [Devon] Betty, Jaylon Scott, Travali Price, those guys have all started games, just due to injury and whatever. The situation we were put in, those guys played a lot football. It helps when guys like that for the last couple of years have been some plugin starters. They’re teaching young guys. So just the snowball effect.”

You’ve had the same staff ever since you became the defensive coordinator. How much has that helped?

Gibson: “COVID year was our first year all together, so those guys had been here now four years. We’re going on year four. Coach [Brian] Mitchell, Coach [Joe] Deforest, and I were all together West Virginia. It helps so much that we’re not teaching coaches the scheme every year. We’re building our scheme and moving forward with it. So it helps a ton.

Covid year was our first year all together so those guys had been here. We’re going on year four. Coach Mitchell, Coach Deforest, and we were all together West Virginia. You know this, it helps so much that we’re not teaching coaches the scheme every year. We’re building our scheme and moving forward with it. So it helps a ton.

At defensive line it looks like you have good depth on the end, maybe more question marks at nose tackle?

Gibson: “Obviously, Davin [Vann], Savion have played a lot of football. Travali has started game. Bringing in Noah Potter, Red Hibbler is going to really help us. We have four or five guys at defensive end I feel really good about.

“Moving inside, CJ Clark is moved back in. [Also have] Brandon Cleveland, Nick Campbell. So, we’re deeper than we’ve ever been.”

How did the newcomers Potter and Hibbler look in the spring?

Gibson: “They look really good. They fit into what we do. Obviously, we’re a little different. We like big guys to play our d-end spots. And Red gives us a little something very similar to [former NC State defensive end] Daniel Joseph, with the pass rush and things like. Red’s an athletic guy, so really like where he’s at.

“Really like what Noah brought us. Noah is a big strong kid. He can eat up, you know two or three blocks at a time, so excited about him.”

Linebacker lost a couple of NFL guys, but you also have a lot of experience in the backups that could move.

Gibson: “Jaylon Scott, Betty have started a lot of games for us with injuries over the past few years. So feel really good about those two, Obviously, you know about Payton coming back for a sixth year, and then a guy, Caden Fordham, really came on. It’s going to be hard to keep him off the field. So you there’s gonna be some great battles in fall camp.

“And then you have Kamal Bonner, that I really like as a freshman coming in. Jordan Poole, Jayland Parker, Torren Wright, we got some guys. It’s gonna be hard to replace Drake [Thomas] and Isaiah [Moore]. But I think that we have we have some depth and we may need to use four, five, six guys.”

When did you start thinking Payton Wilson may come back?

Gibson: “I thought all along that would be his last year — last year, the ’22 season. And then the deeper we got into the season, the more we sat down and talked. It started to change, I think I guess in my mind, just hearing him talk. We really didn’t discuss it a whole lot during the season. And then afterwards we met a few times and just talked about everything.

“His goal is he wants to get through a season healthy and play in every game and be the best that he could be and let’s see where that’s at. And also he loves us. He doesn’t want to be anywhere else. He told me that, ‘I want to I came here to do something and I want to finish my career right away.’

At what point did he start looking like the old Payton Wilson last year?

Gibson: “Really when you look back at how this all played out, the East Carolina game, in the first eight, nine plays of the game, he hurt his shoulder. He thought he hurt it. It didn’t feel right.

“We didn’t play him in Charleston Southern game, and then he came back and that first hit the Texas Tech game on a quarterback, we blitzed him and he hit the quarterback and felt good. Really when you look back that was probably one of his best games last year, and that really got him going again.”

Was that blitz purposely called?

Tony Gibson: “I blitzed him for a purpose. I wanted him to go hit something and go full speed showing that you know everything’s gonna be okay.”

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