The key to neutralizing Clemson’s d-line rest on this NC State player

Grant Gibson lives his life as a center through 40 seconds of chaos, one snap at a time.

The N.C. State co-captain has played in 40 games throughout his career, with 27 starts. He’s seen it all when it comes to defensive fronts, stunts, twists and blitzes. Gibson has been in the middle of the command center known as the offensive line, calling protections, pointing out potential problems in limited time as the play clock ticks down.

With so much happening so fast, Gibson, in his fourth year with the program, has managed to slow the game down in his mind. That allows him to process the call from the coaches on the sideline, the defense in front of him and make adjustments where they are needed.

This Saturday when the Wolfpack (2-1) host Clemson (2-1) the Tigers will bring with them one of the best defensive lines in the nation.

Waiting on the other side of the ball from Gibson will be Clemson’s defensive front of Myles Murphy, Bryan Bresee, Ruke Orhorhoro and Xavier Thomas. That group leads the charge for a Tigers’ defense that hasn’t allowed a touchdown all season. Clemson returned nine starters on defense this season, but it’s been the big guys up front leading the charge so far in 2021.

“Their defensive front is very, very tough. They’re impressive, good players,” N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren said. “They’re physical. They bring a lot of pressure. They mix up their front looks. They are running probably more line stunts than I’ve seen them run in run downs to kind of chop it up in the run game.”

With so much happening in the trenches, this week it’s important as ever that Gibson gets everyone lined up to do their jobs.

Violent, strong, fast

It’s not pretty at the line of scrimmage. Each play 3,000 pounds of men crash into each other, an unstoppable force meets an immovable object until the end of the whistle.

Like most years, Clemson’s four-man front is made up of a bunch of former five-star recruits, with future NFL potential across the board.

“I’ll be honest with you, when you turn on the tape they are violent, they’re strong, they’re fast,” Gibson told the News & Observer. “And they all play well as a group and that’s something you don’t see with most teams, they play well as a group together.”

Watching film on the Tigers, Gibson even noticed when the Clemson second team comes into the game there isn’t much drop off, proving how much depth they have up front.

The Tigers will try to get after N.C. State quarterback Devin Leary, using different looks up front in an attempt to confuse Gibson, who will be reading his keys to call the protection. How he knows what to call comes from a combination of two things - the play call from offensive coordinator Tim Beck and extra film sessions with offensive line coach John Garrison.

“We have trust in coach Garrison and coach Beck,” Gibson said. “They are going to have us prepared for this game. They always try to put us in the best spots and they are going to take care of us.”

Beck and Garrison can prepare the offense all week, but once that call from the sidelines comes in, it’s up to Gibson from there. Not totally, though.

There aren’t anymore huddles, so the offensive line is already lined up on the ball as the call comes in. Gibson will observe the front, but will also listen for input from Dylan McMahon, Ikem Ekwonu, Chandler Zavala and Byrson Speas, the rest of the offensive line. Communication among chaos is something that’s come naturally to the unit this season. But as the play clock is ticking down, the final call is ultimately up to Gibson, dubbed the “Mayor of Raleigh” by Doeren.

“It’s a group effort,” Gibson said. “It’s not all just me, but at the end of the day I’m going to make the call, so that’s kind of the rule and once the call is made that’s it.”

That trust is put into every center on any level, but Doeren knows that the experienced Gibson is one of the best in the business.

“He’s very smart. He understands football. He’s a student of the game,” Doeren said. “He does his best to make sure that he puts his guys in the best situation he can. In a game like this, there’s a lot of looks when you play Clemson. There’s going to be looks they don’t show, new looks for us. They do a good job of setting things up. He’s just got to understand the percentages and what we’re calling.”

Protecting Leary won’t fall just on Gibson and the offensive line. Doeren noted this will be a big week from the tight ends and running backs as well when it comes to blocking. So far this season Doeren has praised the blocking from tight ends Dylan Parham, Chris Toudle and Trent Pennix, and during his weekly press conference, singled out the blocking of running back Ricky Person, Jr. versus Furman.

But it will be Gibson who gets the very first look at the athletic Clemson front, who will pull out all the tricks to cause confusion. Gibson has noticed that the Tigers are a group that’s constantly changing looks up front.

“They’ll do some stunts and stuff, some games that they run on third down,” Gibson said. “They are going to move throughout the game. Some teams just stay in their gaps, but these guys are going to move around, run stunts, run different types of blitzes and things like that. We have to be prepared for everything because we know they are going to bring their best.”

Playing the best

A battle in the trenches, against a top defensive line, is why Gibson came to N.C. State. He wanted to play in games like this against the best, and that ups the stakes for the Pack offensive line this weekend.

“When you play sports you always want to go up against the best and that’s what we have the chance to do this week,” Gibson said. “We have respect for those guys, they are great players. They are a very good team, but we also work hard and we know what we can do if we play our best.”

The offensive line has kept Leary relatively clean through three games, giving up five sacks. Four of those sacks came in one game (Mississippi State), so it will be interesting to see how the line holds up versus perhaps the best defensive line they’ll face all season. That means extra time on the iPad this week for Gibson, studying game film, looking for tendencies that will help make his calls easier.

“I feel like there is always more film I can watch,” Gibson said. “I might watch the same game three times, but I’ll find something new every time.”