When Virginia Tech hired Brent Pry to replace Justin Fuente as the Hokies’ head coach ahead of the 2022 season, he was proud to hire one of his former players, Chris Marve, to be his new defensive coordinator. The Virginia Tech job was special to Pry, having gone to high school nearby and serving three seasons as a graduate assistant under Frank Beamer in the 1990s.
Marve was a former three-time All-SEC linebacker at Vanderbilt and played his final season under new head coach James Franklin and Pry.
Pry developed a close relationship with Marve, and when he landed his first head coaching job, he gave Marve his first defensive coordinator job.
It didn’t work out well. Marve struggled as Tech’s defensive coordinator with on-field performance, player development and recruiting, and was fired after the 2024 season. He spent last season out of coaching before Deion Sanders hired him as a linebackers coach for Colorado in December.
Marve’s stint as linebackers coach didn’t last long, as this week, Sanders promoted him to replace Robert Livingston, who departed Boulder to take a position with the Denver Broncos. Just like that, Marve was a defensive coordinator again.
So, in 2026, Marve will be a defensive coordinator again, just like Pry, who was fired as Virginia Tech’s head coach in September, only to be rehired as defensive coordinator a few months later when Franklin was named head coach.
