Tony Gibson has respect for 'lethal' Wake Forest offense
NC State football defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Tony Gibson has earned a lot of plaudits for his work in Raleigh and previous stops. Gibson personally believes he could earn “a lot of money” if he figured out a way to defend Wake Forest’s offense.
The Demon Deacons have what Gibson termed a “lethal” attack.
“They’ve been doing this for a few years, and everybody struggles [against them],” Gibson noted. “You try to pressure, they got big wideouts that will go up over you and catch the ball. You stay back, their run game comes and hits you.”
Gibson said the key for NC State will be not to be overly simplistic aiming to take something away from Wake Forest.
“It’s all about the mix,” Gibson noted. “We can’t just go in with one thing in mind this is what we are going to do because if that doesn’t work you don’t have anything to fall back on.
“We got to keep preparing. We got a lot of film on them against us. We just got to go back and study what worked and what didn’t and try to stay away from the things that hurt us.”
Don’t expect Gibson to completely use the Louisville defensive game plan that helped force eight Wake Forest turnovers in a 48-21 Cardinals win. The Demon Deacons put the ball on the ground five times and lost four of them, plus had four interceptions.
There may have been a fluky element to the nature of the turnovers.
“I was watching the game live,” Gibson confirmed. “It was crazy. I know a kid like [quarterback] Sam Hartman, he’s a competitor. He’ll bounce back. [Louisville] had them all rattled for a minute.
“Every ball that bounced, it bounced right to Louisville, and you got to give Louisville credit. They did a great job defensively, as well.”
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Hartman may be who keeps Gibson up most at night when studying the Wake Forest offense. The fifth-year redshirt junior went over 10,000 career passing yards earlier during the 2022 season, and overall this year has completed 144 of 228 throws for 2,026 yards and 22 touchdown with just 6 picks, three of which came at Louisville.
For his career, Hartman, an ACC Player of the Year candidate, has thrown for 11,292 yards and 94 scores.
“He’s special,” Gibson noted. “I think he’s the best quarterback in our league. He’s poised. Throws the deep ball really well, runs their offense. And I’ve got a lot of respect for [offensive coordinator] Warren Ruggerio and [head coach] Dave Clawson building that.
“That offense is lethal. We got our work cut out.”
One thing Gibson knows will need to be cleaned up from NC State’s win over Virginia Tech last Thursday is defending the deep pass. For 3 of 4 quarters against the Hokies, the Wolfpack shut down VT. However, in quarter three, NC State allowed three touchdowns.
“We got beat on three deep balls, that was the whole key to that,” Gibson noted.
“We got to get it fixed,” he continued. “It happens at time, but we can’t have that three times happen to us. One, I can see, but we cannot have that happen to us.”
