NC State DC Tony Gibson: ‘I don’t expect us to dip anytime soon’
When NC State’s defense reported to fall camp Monday, Wolfpack defensive coordinator Tony Gibson put his unit’s stats from the last three years on the board. The Wolfpack has leaned on its defense to win games over the last few seasons, and, well, Gibson was not shy about that bar he has set.
“We have a standard here on defense,” Gibson said after the Pack’s second fall camp practice Thursday. “We don’t hide behind it. I put it out there and challenge them. Here’s what was built before you. Our goal is to be better than we were a year ago. Can we do that? There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, but I feel really good about these guys.”
These guys, as Gibson referred to, are a mix of returning veterans and new faces as the Wolfpack begins to understand what life is like in the post-Payton Wilson era.
Wilson, the Wolfpack’s do-it-all linebacker, made 402 total tackles with 48 for a loss, 15 sacks and seven interceptions in five seasons anchoring the defense, and was a third-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s gone, and for the first time, NC State has to adjust without him.
But that is the beauty of how deep the Wolfpack’s defense has been since Gibson arrived in Raleigh. Sure, losing the Bednarik and Butkus Award winner hurts, but the Pack’s defensive coordinator is uber confident in what he is working with this year.
Senior defensive end Davin Vann is the team’s proven commodity on defensive front going into the fall, and he is joined by lockdown corner Aydan White in the secondary. The Pack, however, will have redshirt junior Sean Brown in a new spot after moving from safety to linebacker, while a pair of transfer defensive backs, Donovan Kaufman and Ja’Had Carter, are expected to have major roles in Gibson’s 3-3-5 scheme.
While Carter and Kaufman arrived after spring practice concluded, the Pack identified them as players that could make an impact within the youthful secondary the team had entering the summer. For Gibson, it was an easy decision to add those proven collegiate players.
“We needed to fill some holes,” Gibson said. “We had some guys that graduated, some guys that left, some guys that got injured and we needed to fill some spots. They were OKGs — our kind of guys. That’s what we look for, a plug-and-play type of guy.”
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As Gibson has adjusted to his new-look defense, the expectation of an elite defense remains the same. He will not take anything less, and White believed that Gibson will have the unit at a high level again this fall.
“With Tony Gibson being our coordinator,” White said, “I feel like we’re always going to have a high-caliber defense.”
In the end, that’s exactly the bar NC State has for its defense with high expectations around the program to make the College Football Playoff as the main goal going into the 2024 campaign.
“I expect that’s what we’re going to do this year and make it four years in a row,” Gibson said. “If we don’t meet those expectations, that’s on me.”
And Gibson, who has been the architect of the defense since he showed up at NC State, thinks the new pieces have the ability to maintain the Wolfpack’s high standards this season.
“We lost guys, but we feel good with the guys that are here right now as well,” Gibson said. “We’ve been building this thing over a five-year period and I don’t expect us to dip anytime soon.”
