#Wolfpack 2020: Stocking a new defense

State's newly-named lone coordinator Tony Gibson plans to 'blow up" the defense and mold his unit around the talent on hand

Just because Tony Gibson was a co-defensive coordinator for NC State last season, don''t assume that things will be business as usual next year now that he's been given full control of the unit.

Gibson, who became the Wolfpack's only defensive coordinator shortly after Dave Huxtable was let go earlier this month, said he plans to start examine a number of different options before deciding on how his unit will line up up in 2020.

Whatever scheme he chooses will be based on the talents of the players he has at his disposal -- a group bolstered by the seven new players added Wednesday on the first day of college football's early signing period.

Here's what Gibson had to say about the upcoming changes and how it impacted the recruiting of this year's class:

"It's really important. I’ve been all over the place the last few weeks. Today makes two weeks since I’ve taken the job. Our biggest thing that we’re selling to the guys is ‘look, we’re going to blow everything up and we’re going to start over. We’re not going to be West Virginia’s defense, we’re not going to be Wisconsin’s defense, we’re not going to be what NC State was. We’re going to build this thing around the talent that we have here.’

""It could look like a 3-4, a 3-3, a 4-down. Whatever it may be, we’re going to build it to fit our pieces and we’re going to build it together. I’m extremely excited about the staff that’s here with us now and the players that we have, and we can just continue to build a good brand of defense."

Gibson said that while it's too early to know what the specifics of the new defense will look like, he hashave a clear idea what the new defense will look like. He said "that's always a starting point and we have a pretty good idea of what that’s going to look like. Then we’ll move from there."

"(Transfer defensive end) Jeffrey Gunter is a kid that we've got really high expectations (for). Alim (McNeill) had a really good year we thought, played a lot of football. You’ve got Payton (Wilson), Levi (Jones), Brock (Miller), Isaiah (Moore), so you’ve got a lot of linebackers that have played a lot of football. So is it a 3-3, a 3-4, a 4-down at times? And to be able to play multiple."

One area that's in desperate need of an upgrade is the secondary, especially cornerback -- which is why four of the seven defensive signees in the Class of 2020 play those positions..

Asked why so many, Gibson referred to Doeren's explaination for signing another kicker, even though incumbent Christopher Dunn still has two years of eligibility remaining: You can never have too many good players, just in case ...

"Coach just touched on that he didn't want to be in a situation where he couldn't kick a field goal Well, we've got to be able to look at the sideline when a guy goes down and put another guy in. We started probably six games, or at least the last five, where we had a backup strong safety going in and starting at corner with De’Von Graves. 

"There’s been obviously a lot of injuries that hurt us this year and we had to try to build this thing with speed and get more guys that were athletic enough to go play corner and safety, and the back five positions. I want to be able to take a kid that’s a nickel or corner or safety and be able to move him with those guys and use them as needed. That’s why we targeted so many different guys and we’re not done, either. There may be one or two added late."

Doeren singled out Shrine Bowler Devan Boykin as a potential star among the new recruits, calling him "the staple of what we’re looking for in the backend."  But according to Gibson, the other three defense backs are equally as promising.

"Aydan White is an extremely long and athletic, fast kid. He can really run. He’s a good return guy. Josh Pierre-Louis is another kid that has great skills, can play nickel, corner, anywhere in the secondary. He’s also a return guy. And Nekhi Meredith is a safety. He’s done some things. He’s played a little bit of corner, so very athletic, he can run. That was kind of our thing. We wanted guys that could run with good coverage skills and also could also go back and be a returner and do some different things there to help the football team."