On Tuesday, Virginia Tech and Brent Pry announced the hiring of Chris Marve as defensive coordinator. He has eight years of coaching experience at the college level.
A former linebacker at Vanderbilt from 2008-2011, Marve was a senior with the Commodores when Pry was the Associate Head Coach, Co-Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach on James Franklin's staff in their first year at the school. Marve's career has taken him to a few different places, from Nashville to Mississippi State and most recently Florida State. He joined Mike Norvell's staff with the Seminoles in December of 2019 and spent two seasons there.
Marve was on the Vanderbilt coaching staff as a defensive quality control analyst and a defensive graduate assistant for his first two seasons. In 2016, he was elevated to coach inside linebackers, a position he retained for three seasons.
From there, Marve ventured to Starkville, where he was Mississippi State's defensive run game coordinator and linebackers coach for one season before Mike Leach was named the next head coach of the Bulldogs. From there, he traveled to Tallahassee, where he joined Norvell's original staff. He's a young coach, just 32, but played under Pry and Franklin and coached with Derek Mason (Auburn DC), Joe Moorhead (now Akron HC) and Norvell.
From his Florida State bio: "In August 2018, ESPN.com named Marve to its 40 Under 40, a list of ascending coaching stars. In 2017 and 2018, 247Sports recognized him on its 30 Under 30 list, and also in 2017 he was included on the American Football Coaches Association 35 Under 35 recognition."
Marve's linebackers at Florida State in 2020 totaled 218 tackles and were the top three on the team in that statistic. One of his linebackers, Stephen Dix Jr., earned Freshman All-American honors that season. In addition, he's produced four NFL Draft picks, three all-conference players and one consensus First Team All-American (Zach Cunningham at Vanderbilt).
Cunningham, now with the Houston Texans, led the NFL in tackles in 2020 with 164. A second round draft pick by the Texans in 2017, Cunningham was the first unanimous All-American in Vanderbilt history. He was a finalist for the Butkus Award as the nation's top overall linebacker, too. In his redshirt junior season in 2016, he led the SEC in tackles with 125. Cunningham also posted 16.5 TFLs that season. Ironically, Pry was Cunningham's primary recruiter to Vanderbilt.
From a recruiting standpoint, Marve has a familiar last name on his all-time recruit list: Orji.
Alex Orji is the younger brother of Alston and Anfernee, and he's a quarterback commit in Tech's 2022 class. Though Pry hasn't announced any of his offensive staff yet, the addition of Marve and the connection he has with the Orji family might go a long way in securing Alex's commitment to the Hokies.
In the long run, Marve seems like a coach that can recruit anywhere. While he doesn't have a long history, his all-time commits list shows that he's had success in six different states: Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
Brent Pry might still be very hands-on with the playcalling and involved with the defense in Marve's first season. In his introductory press conference, Pry said it's going to be hard for him to let go of calling plays.
"I love calling the defense," Pry said. "But I’m going to hire the right person and the right group of guys. I’m going to be very involved early and when it feels like it’s the right time, those play-calling duties will be turned over. Whether that’s after spring or after Year 1, we’ll see what it looks like.”
As a player at Vanderbilt, Marve was a four-time All-SEC linebacker. One of the most decorated players in Commodore history, Marve's 397 career tackles rank ninth on the program’s all-time list, and his 30.0 tackles for loss are tied for sixth. He was a two-time captain and a Freshman All-American in 2018.
Brent Pry's Announced Staff:
J.C. Price: Associate Head Coach, Defensive Line Coach
Derek Jones: Defensive Coach (likely secondary)
Shawn Quinn: Defensive Coach (likely defensive line or linebackers)
Chris Marve: Defensive Coordinator
Virginia Tech's Press Release: Link