Florida State football: Dillan Gibbons will have chance to play former coach in Brian Kelly

Dillan Gibbons transferred from Notre Dame two years ago, but since then he hasn't been able to shake former coach Brian Kelly.

Gibbons and Florida State football played Kelly and Notre Dame last season in the season opener. Following the season, Kelly took the job as the LSU head coach. Now, Gibbons will face off against his former coach for the second straight year.

"He's following me around or something," Gibbons said. "At the end of the day, I can't wait to see coach Kelly again. It's going to be a great game."

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The Tigers (0-0) enter as 3-point favorites over FSU (1-0). Gibbons and the offensive line are going to play a huge factor if the Seminoles are able to pull off the upset at 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday at the Superdome in New Orleans.

First snaps at center

FSU was already without its top center in Maurice Smith. Darius Washington drew the start, but he left early due to an injury. That forced Gibbons to move from left guard to center.

"First time taking lives reps in a game," Gibbons said. "The last time I was snapping I was up North. But at the end of the day, I'm going to do everything I can to help Florida State win football games."

Despite the lack of live reps, Gibbons said he did not feel nervous.

"I was confident in my performance at the end of the day," Gibbons said. "I put a lot of work into it, so I get out there and it's like anything I'm doing in practice, whether I'm taking snaps against the scout team or staying a little after practice and taking some snaps."

Gibbons was one of four players to line up at center for the Seminoles in the 47-7 win over Duquesne, joining Washington, redshirt sophomore Thomas Shrader and walk-on David Stickle. A total of 14 offensive linemen got action in the contest.

He said he was proud of what the unit showed, but they will remain hungry.

"We always have room for improvement, right?" Gibbons said. "That's what you get with a baseline game like we had last weekend. But I thought we did a good job with the communication. At the end of the day we had a few different guys slip into a few different roles."

Needless to say, the sixth-year senior will be ready to snap the ball if called upon Sunday.

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Faceless opponent

It's just coach speak, but Gibbons is not trying to hype himself up too much about his opponent.

LSU boasts one of the best defensive lines in college football.

“They've got great depth on the defensive front, athletic, powerful,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said. “So that's going to be a great challenge for us. A little bit of unknown of exactly the presentation of what they're going to do schematically.”

Tigers' defensive ends BJ Ojulari and Ali Gaye are going to present challenges for the FSU offensive line. Ojulari earned first-team honors for all-SEC in the preseason and Gaye was on the second team.

Ojulari recorded 11.5 tackles for loss, including team-high seven sacks, last season for the Tigers. He also added nine quarterback hurries and a pass breakup. Gaye had 19 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in four games last season before going down with an injury.

"Really just have to block guys like birds," Gibbons said. "It doesn't matter who they are, it doesn't matter if it's Duquesne, it doesn't matter if it's LSU, it doesn't matter if it's any team this year. If we block them like birds, we're going to have success."

Gibbons elaborated on what he meant on "block them like birds."

"You can’t identify a bird. One bird looks like the other,” Gibbons said. “You’re blocking defenders, nameless, faceless, doesn’t matter what number they’re wearing. They’re just big dudes you’re trying to get in front of."

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Highlight reel play

One of the biggest highlights from the Duquesne game from Gibbons himself.

Early in the second quarter, Jordan Travis threw a screen pass to the left to wide receiver Mycah Pittman. Pittman snuck into the red zone, while at the tail end of the play, Gibbons flashed down field, knocking Duquesne's Jeremiah Josephs to the ground

"It's one of my favorite screens," Gibbons said. "Being at a different position, I had a different responsibility. I took that to heart. I talked to coach Atkins beforehand on the sideline. ... I was happy to catch one of those smaller guys out there in space. Caught him off guard, punched him in the hip and got him to the ground."

Offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins praised the play at his Monday press conference.

"He was playing center on that play, so it was good to see him get out and run," Atkins said. "I think I saw him retweet that thing like 10 times."

Gibbons refuted he replayed the video as many times as Atkins said.

"(I watched it) a couple of times," Gibbons said. "My sisters run my social media accounts. God bless them, they were pumping it to all different places. I can't thank them enough."

GAME INFORMATION

Who: FSU vs. LSU

When/where: Sunday, 7:30 p.m. ET, Superdome in New Orleans

TV/Radio: ABC/94.9 FM

Live game updates: www.Tallahassee.com; @CarterKarels on Twitter; @Ehsan_Kassim on Twitter; @JimHenryTALLY on Twitter

Contact Ehsan Kassim at 256-300-5313 or ekassim@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Seminole football: Dillan Gibbons, FSU face off against Brian Kelly, LSU