Inside Sean Brown’s breakout season on NC State’s defense

NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson approached redshirt Sean Brown as he sat on the Wolfpack’s sideline in the fourth quarter of last weekend’s game against Clemon. Gibson had an idea: play Brown at linebacker in the team’s dime package. Brown had not practiced at that position since fall camp, but with graduate linebacker Payton Wilson out for the remainder of the game, the Pack needed a defender that could cover a running back. Brown was the red and white’s best option. As Gibson gave Brown a quick rundown of how NC State would approach that final drive of the fourth quarter, the Wolfpack safety had a simple response for the third-year defensive coordinator. “I told him, ‘I got you,’” Brown recalled earlier this week as he sat inside the Murphy Center. “He told me where I was going to be playing, and I was like, ‘All right, bet.’ He had the trust in me to throw me out there and go make plays, and that’s what I did.”