In a series of stories over the next few weeks, PowerMizzou is going in-depth with Missouri's assistant coaches to give Tiger fans a better idea of who the coaches are and what led them to this point. Today, hear from cornerbacks coach David Gibbs, who is entering his second season on the Tiger staff. Gibbs, one of three defensive assistants retained on the Missouri staff by new head coach Eli Drinkwitz, has been a full-time assistant coach at either the Division I or NFL levels since 1995. He has coached defensive backs for the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans and has served as defensive coordinator at Minnesota, Auburn, Houston and Texas Tech. You can find our most recent Q&A, with new linebackers coach D.J. Smith, here.

PowerMizzou: Wanted to start off by asking when did you first know that you wanted to get into coaching?

David Gibbs: “Lord, it might take you a while. I was one of those kids — my dad is Alex Gibbs, longtime offensive line coach — so I mean, I was around it my whole life. I knew in college I wasn’t going to be good enough to play in the NFL, and so I actually started breaking down film when I was a fourth-year junior, a fifth-year senior. I would go in with the GA’s even back in the late 80’s and help them splice up film and do all that stuff. So I knew a long time ago.”

I know sometimes when you’ve got a dad in a given profession sometimes they try to push you to at least consider other options. Was that the case with you?

“Oh yeah, you know how it is. Most coaches tell their sons ‘you’re crazy to get into this business.’ We all know job security is great one minute and not so good the next. But, you know, he was supportive. He knew that’s what I wanted to do, and I made it clear early. It wasn’t one of those where I decided to go work a 9 to 5 job. I knew I couldn’t do that. So he was supportive from the jump. He tried to talk me out of it a little bit, but not like some of these other stories that you hear. I am the perfect example of the kid who never wanted to do anything but play and coach football, so it wasn’t like I had that many more interests. So it was pretty obvious early on.”

So you said you were already working to get your foot into the coaching door even as a player. What was your first entry-level job in the field?

“I GA’d at University of Oklahoma. The funny thing was I actually GA’d for Gary Gibbs. No relation there, just a great football coach, great man. That was my first opportunity to be a GA, and that was ‘91-’92. Great learning experience just being out on your own and didn’t know anybody when I went down there, so it was good for me.”

And then what was kind of your break? What allowed you to move into a full-time assistant role?

“I was on Bill McCartney’s staff in 1994 at Colorado, a GA. When Bill McCartney resigned, on that staff, Rick Neuheisel eventually got the job, Bob Simmons got the Oklahoma State job and they both offered me jobs, so I could have been at Colorado or Oklahoma State. And then our defensive coordinator at the time, Mike Hankwitz, who’s still the defensive coordinator at Northwestern, he offered me a job to go with him to Kansas as a DB coach, and he was my position coach in college, so it was easy for me, although some people looked at me crazy, I felt like I knew him, felt like I could trust him. And even though I left my alma mater, in my mind, I was going to go learn from somebody who, in my opinion, I thought was very, very good at his job. So my break was moving to the University of Kansas in 1995.”

So I know you worked a couple other college jobs after that and then got a job working in the NFL with the Denver Broncos. I’m curious how that came to be and what that experience was like.

“Well my dad was coaching for the Broncos. He was coaching for Mike Shanahan. But all through high school and college I had gone through all those training camps, because my dad was with Shanahan at the Raiders, too. So I had been around Shanahan for a long, long time, so he offered me a position to come join the NFL. And I wasn’t sure, because I was a DC at Minnesota at the time and we were actually pretty good, but it worked out. I’m glad I did it and it was a great four years, just getting exposed to those professional players.”

What were the biggest differences in making the jump from college to the NFL?

“You know, I still believe this even in this day and age, I still believe that the players, if they know that you care about them and they know you can help them, they know that you can make your game better and you’re one of those guys who’s not just blowing smoke or not just talking clinic talk and doing those things, if they see you as a real coach and a real man, I think no matter what level it is, I think it’s all the same. I never had many problems. The one people always say is, well, how do you coach a guy who makes $10 million a year? I never had any problems with those guys. Because, in my mind — I’m not saying that I treated everyone the same, but I coached them, I told them what I thought they needed to do, and I’ve been blessed, I’ve been lucky that more times than not they’ve listened to me and it’s worked out for them. So there’s different ways — obviously you can’t coach a pro player the same way you coach college players. But, again, I think if they respect you and they know that you can help them and that you actually care about them, I think it’s all the same.”

I have to say, I actually grew up a Denver Broncos fan, and that era when you coached there was right about when I started to pay attention to the team. So you got to coach guys who I grew up rooting for like Champ Bailey and Deltha O’Neal and John Lynch who were also, obviously, really good players. What did you learn from coaching those guys?

“They’ll all tell you, I was the one who would ask their advice. Obviously Champ’s in the Hall of Fame, and I don’t think John’s in yet, but John will be there eventually. I just learned from those guys. They were the professionals. Guys who can play that long in that league, I don’t care how much athletic ability you have, you’ve done something right. So any kind of fundamentals, techniques, it wasn’t where I was the guy telling them what to do. I would ask them, and then to their credit, they were open to my way, which you always find a midpoint, what works for them, because at the end of the day, all you care about is that they play good. And that goes back to what I said before: As long as they feel that that’s what you care about, that they play good and that they do good, then I think they give and take but they will give you all their insight that they have.”

So after you have that experience coaching in the NFL you came back to the college ranks. What was your mindset or your goal at that point? Were you open to coaching at both levels, wanting to get back in the NFL, wanting to pursue a college head coaching job or what?

“My mindset was to come back to college to be a coordinator. Because I was a DB coach in the league for nine years and I couldn’t get a defensive coordinator job. Right, wrong or different, I just never landed one. So just the way I look at the world, there’s so many more college jobs than there are pro jobs, and the truth is, nowadays, the pay is getting closer and closer to being equal. Back in the day, the pro guys were paid so much more than college guys. Coaching wise, I don’t think that’s the case any more. So in my mind, I came back to college to be a defensive coordinator, which I did for six years, and then had some chances when coach Kingsbury got fired at Texas Tech, had some chances, and I just didn’t feel like — I guess at my age you can be a little picky — I didn’t feel like it was the best fit for me or the best move for me to make. I knew coach (Ryan) Walters, I knew coach (Barry) Odom, and to come here and be a DB coach, in my opinion, was not a step down if I was around good people, knowing that we were going to play good defense. Which, we did. I think we were top 15 in the nation or something. But in my brain, I would rather put that on my resume after the Texas Tech deal where you’re fighting for your life every series of every game. That’s why I ended up here at Missouri. And playing in the Big Eight and coaching around, obviously I knew about Missouri. I coached at KU, I coached at the Chiefs, I knew enough about Missouri to know that we could be successful.”

You mentioned you came to Missouri looking to put some time as a position coach with a good defense on your resume, and you did that last year. What went into the decision to stay and work under coach Drinkwitz even after, initially, you weren’t guaranteed a full-time job for sticking around?

“No doubt, it was one of those deals where, again, I had options. I met coach Drink a year ago when he got the App State job, and so I’ve been aware of him, I knew who he was, I knew what kind of person he was, and then when he gave me an opportunity to stay, in my mind, we’re going to be good on defense again. I mean, I know we are. And so I weighed it, should I go be a DC again? It’s one of those things, you weigh your options. Multiple things: My family, I didn’t want to move my family twice in one year. There are multiple facets. But a chance to work with coach Drink, I know he’s going to do a great job here, and we’re going to be good enough on defense next year to let him get his style of football going on the offensive side of the ball. To me it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

You’ve coached now at a lot of different places in college and the NFL. Who have been some of the biggest influences on you as a coach?

“Herm Edwards. I was his DB coach for three years when I was head coach of the Chiefs. Just the understanding of how to deal with people and the techniques and fundamentals. He played corner in the league for a long time and had been an NFL head coach, now he’s a college head coach. I mean, he’s just, to me, just a great coach and a great person. I could just go on and on. I’m a little bit like you in a different job because just from our dads, you know so many more people than most people. You run across so many people. And I’ve been blessed, I mean, I’ve been in meetings with Mike Shanahan since Kyle Shanahan was a player, a college player. Now Kyles a freakin’ head coach and doing a great job with the 49ers. So my trail is a little bit skewed.”

I have to ask, we talked a lot last year about the turnovers, your ability to generate turnovers with your defense. I’m not going to ask your secret, because I know you’ve been adamant that there isn’t one, but I’m curious, when did you start getting that reputation as the turnover guru?

“To me, it started early in my career. When I was the defensive coordinator at Minnesota, I was 29 years old. I had no clue what I was doing. We played really good defense, but we never got turnovers. Craziest thing. I think when I went into the NFL and I watched how those guys practiced, and those guys, they understood that the ball was their livelihood. And you can’t do this in college, but, like, coaching a player and he gets a $25,000 bonus for every interception, or he gets a $10,000 bonus for every caused fumble. Just stuff that’s in their contracts. So when I came back to college, in my mind, it was how can I get them to understand the importance of it? Because everybody preaches it, everybody does that. You’re not going to do a drill that half the country doesn’t do. I just think it’s a mindset, it’s a culture, and it starts with the head coach and rolls down onto the defensive coordinator, onto the defense. But when I came back from pro football, that’s when I understood you win and lose football games just with one simple, little tactic. And, obviously, it’s not as easy to get them as everybody says. And that one year at Houston I got lucky as snot, we had like 43 or some crazy number, and so ever since then.”

As you said, you can’t incentivize turnovers the same way with money or contract bonuses in college. So how do you incentivize it?

“To me, every day in practice, when a guy does do it, you celebrate it on the field and you celebrate it in the meeting room off the field, you celebrate it the next day, and it’s one of those, in my opinion, you achieve what you emphasize. That’s old school, that’s what we used to do. And now, what do we emphasize in life? We emphasize 500 freakin’ things every day. And I get it, it’s a new era. But to me, you have to make it the emphasis, to where the kids feel like, wow, man, I did one thing and this guy talks about me for two days straight. So to me you gotta be able to let the player feel good about it and wanting to do it, and then obviously you coach it, but everybody does that. To me, it’s more culture. This is what we do. And again, I’ve said this for a long time, too, and I’m not the coordinator here, so I’m not in charge, but in my mind, if I miss a tackle and I’m trying to strip the ball out, that’s not the end of the world to me. Whereas a lot of coaches, that’s the end of the world. To me, if the kid is trying to work the football and get the ball and he misses a tackle, football happens, man. Football is hard. Football happens. So you fight that battle, too.”

Last thing for you, I know you mentioned that your goal in the past was to be a defensive coordinator. What are your goals right now? Is it to get back to that point, is it to get past that point and be a head coach, is it to get back in the NFL? What do you see for yourself moving forward?

“To me, and everybody who knows me knows, it’s all about my family. Whatever is best for my family. And I know that’s a scapegoat, I know that’s an out. I like it here, I like Mizzou, I like living here, my family likes living here. I’ve got a really good job and I work with really good people, and to me, as long as you can work with good people and you enjoy what you do every day, then that’s my B.S. answer for you.”