I'll talk a little more about NC State's personnel tomorrow. This week's 3 keys to the game are a little broader than just one guy or matchup.
Tony Gibson v. Donovan Smith / Zach Kittley Braintrust
"His structure is to beat the Air Raid teams... their #1 goal is to confuse the QB." -- Zack Kittley on Tony Gibson's defense
"The best thing he does is change the tempo and the time clock in a QB's mind." - Tim DeRuyter on Tony Gibson
"We can't just stay simple and stay in the same calls all game." -- Tony Gibson on defending Zach Kittley's offense
I'll never forget sitting in Jones Stadium before our game with Kansas and watching the 2014 WVU-Baylor game.
Baylor was #4 in the nation and had just hung 61 points on Gary Patterson in Fort Worth. This was the peak of Art Briles going full Genghis Khan, pillaging and subjugating every defensive coordinator & defensive system in the country. That Baylor team averaged over 45 points per Big 12 game. They were unstoppable.
But that 2014 WVU-BU game was the first time I recall seeing someone have an answer. The answer was Tony Gibson. WVU was kamikaze blitzing 6-7 guys on almost every play and stymied Baylor (relatively), en route to a 41-27 WVU win. Bryce Petty was just 16 of 36 passing and sacked 4 times. Baylor averaged less than 2.5 yards per carry on over 40 attempts.
This isn't the same Tony Gibson, apparently. Kittley made it seem like he's gone away from "bringing 6+ guys or dropping 8" every play. But there's still remnants of that uber-aggressive defense that is constructed to beat our specific offensive system by confusing the QB. That part's a little scary. Donovan has, by now, played a lot of football for his age. But not enough to really prepare him for this -- a night game against a P5 team that hasn't lost at home in years, with one of the oldest defenses in college football.
Will Donovan make good decisions? Not just when he's throwing the ball, but can he get us into the right plays via checks at the line of scrimmage? If he's unsure of what to do or if we're in the wrong play, will his feet be able to bail us out of trouble? These questions probably decide the game. Donovan is going to have to play his best game to date for Tech to win. Maybe not completely mistake free, but pretty close to it. We won't survive a pick 6 / multiple turnover day from him.
Who is going to Win on First Down? - NC State Defense v. Tech's Offense
Joey McGuire & Kittley made multiple comments this week about protecting our OL by doing a better job on first down, creating more manageable situations for our offense. McGuire thought this would've prevented UH's pass rushers from pinning their ears back on 2nd & 3rd and long. Regardless of opponent, their comments made it seem like our offense might be a little more conservative on first downs this week, whether that's via the run or quick/horizontal passing game.
On the other side of the ball, this NC State defense really focuses on winning first down snaps, usually with pressure. They blitz more on first down than almost any team in the country. If you listen to Tony Gibson & NC State's players, they mentioned winning on first down is the key to preventing our offense from racking up a lot of plays and snapping the ball with tempo.
Both teams are emphasizing it this week. Can we stay out of obvious passing downs? Being in 3rd & 7+ seems like a recipe for disaster. Avoiding those situations is going to help our OL, it's going to help Donovan make quicker reads, and it's going to keep our defense off the field.
Here's one single play that is relevant to the first two keys of the game. "Exotic" is an understatement when describing Tony Gibson. Aggressive? Absolutely. This is the first play of NC State's season, and they show a 6-man pressure and end up bailing both of their 3-4 defensive ends into coverage. They are going to be moving guys all over the place trying to confuse Donovan and keep him guessing on who is coming and who is bailing.
Will I Jinx our Defense? - Me v. The Football Gods
I'm not going to fall into this trap again. It's that thing when I say out loud, "By God, we have a respectable P5 defense." I've done it before (and I still think I was right a few of those times), and those words were instantly followed by Tech allowing 70 points and 647 yards rushing to a former Southwest Conference team. So I won't do it.... I'm just not going to put our team in that position again.
But having said that, there is a very real possibility that Tim DeRuyter might actually know what he's doing. I mean, could bringing in the most respected & credentialed defensive coordinator in 10+ years be a good thing? What if we paired him with a defensive-minded HC? It's not going to hurt, right? It could certainly help fix our defense. DeRuyter has seen some sh*t, man. Was involved in one of the best defensive turnarounds in recent history (Cal). I'm certainly a believer.
But I'm still not going to do it. Refuse to say that we have a respectable P5 defense. It doesn't matter what coaches you have, the players still have to be good.
It would take injecting 10+ veteran & talented transfers to supplement Blidi, Dadrian, Hutchings & Bradford to give us the personnel to go win some games on that side of the ball. I mean, have you seen what happened to our recruiting classes? Like 80% of our HS signees are busts. It's insane.
*checks notes* -- There are 13 transfers in our 2-deep, all of them 22+ years' old, many of them good enough to play for our opponents. Muddy Waters is a bad man.
Okay, even if we really did replace all those HS busts with talented guys, we'd need a dominant force at defensive end, someone NFL teams want and other teams can't block straight up. No way we got one of those.
*checks notes* -- Tyree Wilson.
Fine.. say that there actually is an NFL player at DE, it would still take us fielding the best secondary in a long time from an experience & measurable standpoint. I physically can't take another season of Olawula Falemi's & Sawyer Vests defending NFL receivers. That was ridiculous.
*checks notes* -- This is the most experienced & biggest/longest secondary that we've fielded in a long, long time... Maybe ever (thanks, COVID).
Oh no, it's happening. I'm about to go full Leroy Jenkins...
WE HAVE A RESPECTABLE P5 DEFENSE.
It's true. They are respectable. Other teams could use our players and our coaching staff.
We have the personnel to win football games on defense. Even football games against P5 teams on the road. This group DESTROYED Miss. State in the bowl game. Last Saturday, UH gained less than 35% of Available Yards against us. That's as good as our defense has played in years. There hasn't been one sustained TD drive against us yet.
The competition is stepping up, for sure. NC State is probably going to score a TD against us without needing to connect on a heaved-up deep ball. But our defense can give us a chance to win. I don't know what that means exactly. It could mean holding them to 24 or less points, or creating turnovers that lead to easy points. I'm not sure. But they have it in them. The only question is whether the football gods will strike me down. Again...
Ryan left it all out on the field in everything he did. In his honor, we bring you Fields of Gold, so that others facing bone cancer can keep on playing. A portion of proceeds from every case sold is donated to The Little Warrior Foundation.
The Little Warrior Foundation's mission is to fund & find a lasting cure for childhood cancer, with a specific focus on Ewing's Sarcoma.
shop.summerlandwinebrands.com
@Saynotobarefoot
Tony Gibson v. Donovan Smith / Zach Kittley Braintrust
"His structure is to beat the Air Raid teams... their #1 goal is to confuse the QB." -- Zack Kittley on Tony Gibson's defense
"The best thing he does is change the tempo and the time clock in a QB's mind." - Tim DeRuyter on Tony Gibson
"We can't just stay simple and stay in the same calls all game." -- Tony Gibson on defending Zach Kittley's offense
I'll never forget sitting in Jones Stadium before our game with Kansas and watching the 2014 WVU-Baylor game.
Baylor was #4 in the nation and had just hung 61 points on Gary Patterson in Fort Worth. This was the peak of Art Briles going full Genghis Khan, pillaging and subjugating every defensive coordinator & defensive system in the country. That Baylor team averaged over 45 points per Big 12 game. They were unstoppable.
But that 2014 WVU-BU game was the first time I recall seeing someone have an answer. The answer was Tony Gibson. WVU was kamikaze blitzing 6-7 guys on almost every play and stymied Baylor (relatively), en route to a 41-27 WVU win. Bryce Petty was just 16 of 36 passing and sacked 4 times. Baylor averaged less than 2.5 yards per carry on over 40 attempts.
This isn't the same Tony Gibson, apparently. Kittley made it seem like he's gone away from "bringing 6+ guys or dropping 8" every play. But there's still remnants of that uber-aggressive defense that is constructed to beat our specific offensive system by confusing the QB. That part's a little scary. Donovan has, by now, played a lot of football for his age. But not enough to really prepare him for this -- a night game against a P5 team that hasn't lost at home in years, with one of the oldest defenses in college football.
Will Donovan make good decisions? Not just when he's throwing the ball, but can he get us into the right plays via checks at the line of scrimmage? If he's unsure of what to do or if we're in the wrong play, will his feet be able to bail us out of trouble? These questions probably decide the game. Donovan is going to have to play his best game to date for Tech to win. Maybe not completely mistake free, but pretty close to it. We won't survive a pick 6 / multiple turnover day from him.
Who is going to Win on First Down? - NC State Defense v. Tech's Offense
Joey McGuire & Kittley made multiple comments this week about protecting our OL by doing a better job on first down, creating more manageable situations for our offense. McGuire thought this would've prevented UH's pass rushers from pinning their ears back on 2nd & 3rd and long. Regardless of opponent, their comments made it seem like our offense might be a little more conservative on first downs this week, whether that's via the run or quick/horizontal passing game.
On the other side of the ball, this NC State defense really focuses on winning first down snaps, usually with pressure. They blitz more on first down than almost any team in the country. If you listen to Tony Gibson & NC State's players, they mentioned winning on first down is the key to preventing our offense from racking up a lot of plays and snapping the ball with tempo.
Both teams are emphasizing it this week. Can we stay out of obvious passing downs? Being in 3rd & 7+ seems like a recipe for disaster. Avoiding those situations is going to help our OL, it's going to help Donovan make quicker reads, and it's going to keep our defense off the field.
Here's one single play that is relevant to the first two keys of the game. "Exotic" is an understatement when describing Tony Gibson. Aggressive? Absolutely. This is the first play of NC State's season, and they show a 6-man pressure and end up bailing both of their 3-4 defensive ends into coverage. They are going to be moving guys all over the place trying to confuse Donovan and keep him guessing on who is coming and who is bailing.
Will I Jinx our Defense? - Me v. The Football Gods
I'm not going to fall into this trap again. It's that thing when I say out loud, "By God, we have a respectable P5 defense." I've done it before (and I still think I was right a few of those times), and those words were instantly followed by Tech allowing 70 points and 647 yards rushing to a former Southwest Conference team. So I won't do it.... I'm just not going to put our team in that position again.
But having said that, there is a very real possibility that Tim DeRuyter might actually know what he's doing. I mean, could bringing in the most respected & credentialed defensive coordinator in 10+ years be a good thing? What if we paired him with a defensive-minded HC? It's not going to hurt, right? It could certainly help fix our defense. DeRuyter has seen some sh*t, man. Was involved in one of the best defensive turnarounds in recent history (Cal). I'm certainly a believer.
But I'm still not going to do it. Refuse to say that we have a respectable P5 defense. It doesn't matter what coaches you have, the players still have to be good.
It would take injecting 10+ veteran & talented transfers to supplement Blidi, Dadrian, Hutchings & Bradford to give us the personnel to go win some games on that side of the ball. I mean, have you seen what happened to our recruiting classes? Like 80% of our HS signees are busts. It's insane.
*checks notes* -- There are 13 transfers in our 2-deep, all of them 22+ years' old, many of them good enough to play for our opponents. Muddy Waters is a bad man.
Okay, even if we really did replace all those HS busts with talented guys, we'd need a dominant force at defensive end, someone NFL teams want and other teams can't block straight up. No way we got one of those.
*checks notes* -- Tyree Wilson.
Fine.. say that there actually is an NFL player at DE, it would still take us fielding the best secondary in a long time from an experience & measurable standpoint. I physically can't take another season of Olawula Falemi's & Sawyer Vests defending NFL receivers. That was ridiculous.
*checks notes* -- This is the most experienced & biggest/longest secondary that we've fielded in a long, long time... Maybe ever (thanks, COVID).
Oh no, it's happening. I'm about to go full Leroy Jenkins...
WE HAVE A RESPECTABLE P5 DEFENSE.
It's true. They are respectable. Other teams could use our players and our coaching staff.
We have the personnel to win football games on defense. Even football games against P5 teams on the road. This group DESTROYED Miss. State in the bowl game. Last Saturday, UH gained less than 35% of Available Yards against us. That's as good as our defense has played in years. There hasn't been one sustained TD drive against us yet.
The competition is stepping up, for sure. NC State is probably going to score a TD against us without needing to connect on a heaved-up deep ball. But our defense can give us a chance to win. I don't know what that means exactly. It could mean holding them to 24 or less points, or creating turnovers that lead to easy points. I'm not sure. But they have it in them. The only question is whether the football gods will strike me down. Again...
Ryan left it all out on the field in everything he did. In his honor, we bring you Fields of Gold, so that others facing bone cancer can keep on playing. A portion of proceeds from every case sold is donated to The Little Warrior Foundation.
The Little Warrior Foundation's mission is to fund & find a lasting cure for childhood cancer, with a specific focus on Ewing's Sarcoma.
Summerland Wine Brands - Shop - Fields of Gold
shop.summerlandwinebrands.com
@Saynotobarefoot
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