NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson shares the approach to Saturday's contest against No. 10 Notre Dame, especially with a familiar foe in former Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman.
Too much differences from the time you read there. Yeah, I don't know. I, I mean, we broke down all their stuff from a year ago but, you know, it's a little different. We talked about some of the breakdowns last week. How much of that would you attribute to maybe a little bit of an experience? Yeah. Well, the, the biggest issue was is when we got hit with two plays really the first job they did a good job. They did some stuff we weren't ready for, didn't prepare for, uh, run an option with their quarterback. Uh, and, and then they caught us in a pressure and, uh, they, they schemed us up at that point. So that was more of a schematic standpoint than it was on the kids then the second touchdown in the long run. Uh, you know, one of our best players was out of his gap and, you know, unfortunate, uh, we had a couple other older guys, not in the right position and, you know, didn't, didn't have angles to make that tackle. So we got hit but you take that long run out. And, uh, you know, I was, I was pretty happy with how we responded after the first drive. I'm guessing he had to scramble just a little bit. Um I think even one to make sure that he, he keep safety, you know, what was it like to just kind of just on the? Yeah, it was good. I mean, our kids stepped up, Sean Brown came in and played really well in my opinion. Uh So, you know, him and Rock were gonna be the guys that, that, you know, man, that position up and then Rock got hurt as well. So, uh Sean played the whole game and, you know, thought he did a really nice job and you know, made a lot of plays for us. You have someone like Bishop who literally just arrived this summer. How fast has he been able to? Yeah, Bishop is uh we, we thought he had a really good fall camp. He actually had the most interceptions in camp of any of our D BS. So uh really impressed with how he plays. He's smart, uh understands our ski really well, you know, kid was a former high school quarterback, so he's a smart guy. Uh used to making calls and, you know, we really like where he's at right now, like for a lot of like, yeah, that was a package that we play with uh you know, and uh Bishops in that. So, you know, his role is just gonna keep increasing as we go. On through the season. And again, he's very smart, can play any of the positions in the back end. I know it's just a couple of games into the season. But do you, do you see any kind of differences or improvement with Sam Harman when he was at wa versus now? Not, uh, it's just so different to when you're breaking him down now in a pro style offense, uh, where he's not again running the mesh, doing all those things. But, but as we all know, Sam's a great quarterback, uh, you know, the numbers show you that and he's, he's just calm, he has great pocket presence, uh, knows the game. So, you know, I'm, I'm sure Sam is fired up to come back to North Carolina and play a old rivalry and, you know, he's going to be fired up for this game and, you know, I got a lot of respect for him. He's a good, good, good football player. And, uh, you know, so, you know, we're, we're gonna have a challenge but, you know, I, I'm excited about that challenge and I know our kids, you know, and, and it goes back, your be your most improvement all year long is game one to game two because now all the, uh, cob webs are broken, you know, you're, you're ready to roll now. And so I feel really good about how we've practiced this week. Uh, we've had a lot of energy, big game. Obviously, we know our fan base is gonna be here to support it. And, uh, you know, I think the kids are starting to feel that. So I'm looking for big time improvements from us and, uh, and, and we got to go out and, you know, play very solid and, and play well to win this game. You know, do you have to teach the guys back? They're all, they're all big, they're all fast. Uh, they run hard and so, you know, again where it's gonna be a challenge for us, but, you know, we, we have to make sure that we have 11 guys to the football. That's the key for us. We can't leave our D BS one on one with these big backs. Uh, that, that will be an issue for us. So we, we've got to get guys to the ball and, you know, that, that's, that's the key for us is, is just getting everybody to it, playing with a lot of effort. All right. Thank you guys.