Chris Marve on Virginia Tech’s youth improving: ‘You get better at football by playing football’

Virginia Tech saw big improvement in its defense this past season in its second year under defensive coordinator Chris Marve. The Hokies went from 54th in total defense during Marve’s first season to 20th in 2023 as they finished 7-6.

Virginia Tech returns several starters and brings in a few transfers who figure to start as well as they look to take another step forward this year. Marve joined the Andy Staples On3 podcast, where he explained the growth he has seen from his defense in the past two seasons.

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“You get better at football by playing football,” he said. “I really believe that. This is a grown man’s sport. It’s a lot of speed and mass moving at the same time. You get better by playing it. So throughout the course of the season we were here and the last season we had, you did watch a lot of maturation show. You saw development happen on the field both in positive ways and negative ways.”

In addition to defensive coordinator, Marve is also the linebackers coach for the Hokies. He brings back his best player at the position from last season in Keli Lawson, who led the team with 80 tackles a season ago.

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Virginia Tech also returns safety Keonta Jenkins (10 TFL, two forced fumbles) and defensive lineman Antwuan Powell (9.5 sacks). The Hokies also add former Middle Tennessee linebacker Sam Brumfield through the transfer portal, who figures to start alongside Lawson.

Marve acknowledges that as well as his defense played last year, there was still room for improvement. He hopes to see that on display this year from both the returning players and the additions.

“Nobody played perfect,” he said. “You learned from mistakes and you grew with things that you did well. You’re going to continue to see that. Football is an imperfect game played by imperfect people. But the standards that we set and how we hold each other accountable and play and coach on a daily basis, that’s gonna be indicative of the level of success that we can have.”

Virginia Tech feels it can make a step forward defensively in the third year of Chris Marve with all that in mind. The Hokies will kick off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 against Vanderbilt.