How NC State maintained its high linebacker standard of play under first-year DC D.J. Eliot

Shortly after NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson left the Wolfpack to become the head coach at Marshall last December, Dave Doeren sat down with rising graduate linebacker Caden Fordham.  In the coach-to-player conversation, Doeren wanted to make sure he was on the same page as Fordham, who was working his way back from a torn ACL. He wanted to make sure that while his position coach was headed out the door, Fordham needed to have patience and to trust him with the next hire.  “I know it’s hard when your coach leaves that you’ve been with, just wait,” Doeren told his veteran linebacker. “You’re going to learn a lot of new things that can help your game.” Twenty two days after Gibson’s departure, the Wolfpack introduced D.J. Eliot as its next linebackers coach and defensive play-caller. It was an outside-the-box hire, but one that Doeren felt fit his defense the best. A scheme change followed, moving from the 3-3-5 to a four-man front base unit, one that still required high-level linebacker play that NC State had grown accustomed to. From Isaiah Moore to Drake Thomas to Payton Wilson, game-changing players in the middle of the Pack defense became the norm in Raleigh. All three made it to the NFL, including the latter two currently playing at their highest levels of their careers to this point.  And just because Eliot was new to leading the room, that didn’t mean the standard was going to drop. After all, Moore was retained on staff to be his assistant position coach, creating a dynamic duo that tutored the Wolfpack’s inside and outside linebackers together within the new format of the defense.