Time to put a bow on the Tony Gibson epoch, so let me grab this from the cutting room floor.

Remember, this story was supposed to be something different, and the idea was to press Gibby about his coaching influences and wonder either why it took so long to get a chance or why people thought he didn’t deserve this one … or both as it turned out.

We covered some of that, but the interesting part I never got to was who he valued from his past and what he thought about the many coaches who helped shape his career.

“The defensive side early in my career, working and playing for a guy like Dean Hood, that’s really when it all started to come full circle,” Gibson said. “He was one of the best coaches I’ve been around in my life in any aspect of the game. He was an unbelievable motivator, and that all started way back in 1991 when I was playing for Dean and it kind of evolved from there.”

Not unusual for a college coach to become and remain an integral part of a young coach or player’s life. That made sense.

Then we went into some more detail about who he’s been around and what he’s learned — and it’s a pretty impressive roster that I think people fail to recognize. Coaches are products of their environments, and if you’re around good coaches, you look and learn and give yourself a chance to be pretty good, too.

Rich Rodriguez had a really good staff early on at WVU with people who went on to become head coaches and coordinators. Gibson, who’s just 42 now, was able to link up early in his career with Todd Graham and Jeff Casteel, and we’re not about to quibble about their bona fides, are we?

“Jeff and Todd, being around those guys, though I wasn’t around Todd too long, was a great help just being young and watching them and how they came up with what they wanted to do,” Gibson said. “Jeff is probably more the overall teacher, one of the best I’ve seen. He’s really good at the ‘Here’s what we’re doing and here’s how I want it done,’ and we never jumped all over the place and never were in bad positions. He kept the boat steady and I really liked that about the way he coached.”

Gibson followed Rodriguez to Michigan, and Rodriguez had a hard time getting a defensive coordinator before picking Scott Shafer, who was an even-front coach and thus not completely congruous with the odd front coaches Rodriguez brought with him. Shafer lasted one season before he was hired as an assistant at Syracuse. Enter Greg Robinson, who excelled at simplifying things and harping on a player’s or a team’s strengths — and that’s something Gibby’s players, and assistants, really like about him and what he’s so far done at WVU.

“Greg Robinson was a very good coach, a very good defensive coach, who knew all aspects of the game and how to relate with his players,” Gibson said. “Scott Shafer, the head coach at Syracuse now, is a really smart, really sharp defensive guy who had great leadership. Bruce Tall is as good a football coach as I’ve been around.”

Also on that first Michigan staff? Jay Hopson, who had been the defensive coordinator for Jeff Bower at Southern Miss and was hired as the first white head coach in SWAC history in 2012 — and who just won Alcorn State’s first league title in 20 years.

“There have just been a ton of guys I’ve gotten to work with and I’ve been pretty lucky to be in a position to watch and learn from,” Gibson said.

You might never guess who he singled out, though.

Phil Elmassian.

Phil Elmassian?

“That guy,” Gibson said.

Uh, yeah. That guy.

He lasted one season at WVU. The 2001 defense was a disaster, and Elmassian and his, shall we say, colorful personality did not blend in well with everyone. Rodriguez wanted to try something different on defense and Elmassian was down the road at Marshall the following season.

“Some of the defensive knowledge and just how he was prepared, I got some great ideas out of Phil Elmassian, just a lot of different things,” Gibson said.

Here’s Elmassian’s career:

1975-74: William & Mary (QB/RB)
1976-78: Richmond (QB/RB)
1979-82: Ferrum (DC)
1983: East Carolina (DB)
1984: Minnesota: (DB)
1985-86: Virginia Tech (DB)
1987-90: Virginia (DB)
1991-92: Syracuse (DB)
1993-94: Virginia Tech (DC)
1995-96: Boston College (DC)
1997-99: Wisconsin (DB)
2000: LSU (DC)
2001: WVU (DC)
2002: Marshall (LB)
2003: Purdue (DB)
2004-07: Nebraska (DB)
2008: Louisiana-Monroe (DC)
2009-10: Illinois State (DC)
2011: Purdue (LB)
2012-13: UMass (DC)
2014: Ferrum (DC)

That’s amazing. Amazing. The run from 1999-20004 is something else.

Look, I don’t know the guy. I was a college student in 2001. I know people think or thought he was a wonderful mind and could really coach defensive backs. But I know people at WVU hated experiencing him because Elmassian was an unapologetic character all the way through this season at Ferrum that ended, it seems, with health problems and a resignation in October. That resume says something, I have to believe.

And that’s the guy Tony Gibson, with whom Elmassian spent but one season, mentioned. I was confused, and Gibby knew it.

“That’s the thing about it,” he said. “He taught me what to do and probably what not to do. But he’s a very, very, very smart guy. There’s still terminology of his I use, whether we’re teaching technique or whatever it may be, that Phil taught us and that we talked about. There’s still stuff we do in man coverage that I liked from when he was doing it here.”