Five games, five different offenses, and now a break for NC State’s dynamite defense
What keeps N.C. State defender Tony Gibson up at night? If he’s crossed all his t’s and dotted his i’s by Sunday of game weeks, not much.
The process of game planning for the next opponent, the next offense for Gibson, starts on Sunday.
Gibson won’t meet with the team until Tuesday, and by the time they walk into the Murphy Center he has the game plan all lined up.
On Sundays, Gibson goes over a laundry list of things he wants to check off before he leaves the building. That list includes the opponents run game plan: Is there a running quarterback? Is the Wolfpack’s 3-3-5 base enough, or does he need to add more blitzes? Where does the opponent like to throw the ball? What formations do they like? What are their formations? What tendencies do they have?
“I try to go to bed Sunday night with that in mind,” Gibson told the News & Observer. “And wake up Monday and try to hit the whole first down, second down, third down, just try to get everything rolling at that point.”
Gibson’s schedule isn’t exclusive. It’s probably the same calendar coaches all across the country keep. But through the first five games of the season the Wolfpack has faced five different challenges on the offensive side of the ball. It hasn’t allowed N.C. State to relax with its game planning.
South Florida had some new members on its offensive staff, plus it was the first game of the season which meant no film to work with. Week 2 was Mike Leach and the Air Raid. Furman’s offense was more option-based and Clemson was a spread team. Louisiana Tech was be the trickiest offense of the five, according to Gibson and Doeren.
Whereas 10 years ago it seemed like every program was running the spread offense, teams have gone back to various styles of offenses, with different concepts and tendencies in order to be one step ahead of defenses.
“That’s what it is,” Doeren said. “It’s week to week. That’s the challenge on defense, is adjusting to what you’re going to defend.”
Defending has worked well for N.C. State so far. The Wolfpack is ranked No. 19 in the country in total defense, one of only two ACC teams in the top 20. They are 10th in interceptions and 15th in scoring defense.
Mississippi State and Furman had their lowest offensive totals of the year versus N.C. State. USF ( a season low 271 versus the Pack) and Clemson had better numbers only against FCS opponents FAMU and South Carolina State. The Tigers 214 yards were the lowest in the series since 1994. Louisiana Tech put up a season-high 480 yards against the Wolfpack, but it was the N.C. State defense that came up with a game-clinching interception in the end zone.
Heading into an off week, Gibson will get a chance to catch his breath, if briefly. Once the Wolfpack returns to action it’ll be nothing but ACC games from here on. That presents a whole different set of challenges. The first opponents, though, were plenty to keep Gibson busy.
A new week
On a shelf next to the desk in his office, Gibson has a row of binders, each one thick as a phone book.
Inside those binders are individual game plans for each N.C. State opponent; down and distance, formations, play tendencies, on and on.
“They get pretty extensive,” Gibson said. “We have so many different reports to get so many different things that we look for and study and need during the week to start game planning.”
The game planning for the first five opponents started in the summer. The staff dedicated a week to get an early start on studying each opponent. Once fall camp started the first weeks were committed to installing and adding elements to Gibson’s 3-3-5 defense. With 10 starters back, there wasn’t as much teaching as there was refreshing information. A little more than a week away from the opener versus South Florida, the Pack started their game plan for the Bulls.
“You have to guess going into that first game, especially when you don’t have any evidence of what they are doing,” Gibson said. “But also I think that’s what makes us unique, we don’t change defenses, we don’t have a (new) defense each week. We play what we play.”
Sure, Gibson will add blitzes and various pressures depending on the opponent, but the base concepts of his 3-3-5 doesn’t change. His defensive front of Daniel Joseph, Savion Jackson and Cory Durden, along with linebackers Drake Thomas, Isaiah Moore and Jaylon Scott make minor adjustments based on the game plan. The most interchangeable position, depending on the opponent, is at safety, with Tanner Ingle, Jakeen Harris and nickel back Tyler Baker-Williams.
Against a pass-first team like Mississippi State, the safeties played further away from the line of scrimmage. Against Furman, they played a lot in the box. That’s when it helps to have a guy like Baker-Williams, who can play any position in the secondary, or Ingle, who supports the run with the intensity of a linebacker. Gibson can throw a lot at those guys week to week.
“It’s a lot of stress on the safety,” Gibson said. “We do a lot of different stuff with those guys. The bulk of the game plan goes on them because they have to be in run fits, they have to be in coverage at times, they are in blitz packages, so they really have to know it in and out and be confident in what we are asking them to do that week.”
That preparation and install begins the Tuesday of each week. It’s two days after Gibson has already done his initial film studies, but guys like Thomas and Moore already have hours of their own film study done.
“When we start getting them all the info (on Tuesday) they are pretty sharp,” Gibson said. “They know it, they know what I’m thinking a lot of the time.”
What they see on film then has to be translated to the practice field. Tuesday is when Gibson throws the bulk of the game plan at his guys, probably the most important day of the week. How much he throws at them, again, depends on the opponent. Furman, for example, was an FBS opponent, but their option based offense was so layered, that Gibson wanted to make sure his guys understood every little detail. Durden acknowledged the details the Tuesday before the Furman game was “over the top.”
“The first day is really the most important day,” Durden said. “We’re going to see everything as far as the run, RPOs (run-pass option), everything that first day. Tuesday is definitely the hardest practice. They throw a lot at us just to see how we react.”
The reaction that week was a 45-7 victory. That was coming off a week where they prepped for the air raid and ahead of Clemson’s spread. Scrap everything you learned and start from scratch.
Doesn’t get easier
The next challenge for N.C. State is a trip to Boston College.
Traditionally the Eagles (4-1) were the type of team that liked to put as many tight ends as they could on the field (snug formations as Gibson called them) and run it down your throat with a 200-plus running back.
The Pack knew what they were getting each time they played Boston College. But this is the first time they’ve taken on the Eagles under Jeff Hafley. Boston College is sixth in the league in rushing, proving they are still very much committed to the run.
After that is a trip to Miami, currently sixth in the league in passing, and still holding out hope that dual threat quarterback D’Eriq King can return. The ACC will present more challenges than the non-conference slate, meaning different styles, more talent, in the upcoming weeks. That’s when it helps Gibson to have a crew with a high football I.Q., who can digest and execute what he wants done each week.
Keeping it simple, the principles of the 3-3-5, with small adjustments will remain the theme moving ahead.
“We have a lot of play makers on defense,” Durden said. “And the biggest thing the coaches preach to us is just don’t try to do too much. Just do your job and the play will come to you and I feel like everyone has bought into that.”
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Five games, five different offenses, and now a break for NC State’s dynamite defense."
