Inside Virginia Tech's Defensive Room | Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt Preview w/ Hokies DC Chris Marve

we are joined Now by Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Chris Marv and you've got a unit coach that between the year before last and last year learn how to put the quarterback on the ground you know you finished second in the ACC and Sachs last year and I heard you talking about this and I I'm fascinated by this you said hey we got there in 2022 but we couldn't finish those sacks like how do you teach somebody to finish a sack yeah really good question first of all man thank you guys for having me on you know I really what you do and what you stand for and I appreciate you noticing you know the work and the guys really seeing the fruits of their labor from a year ago you know you the way you get better at football is by playing football right and so we drilled it incessantly how to get to the quarterback how to finish at the quarterback and and really not allow the moment to get too big for you um just trus in your training finishing where you need to finish and knowing the personality of the quarterback that you're going against right does he like to spin on the back shoulder is he a step up guy when he when he scrambles does he look to run or does he look to throw the football all those things are imperative knowing your opponent going in so that you you have a really good plan of attack and so you can react well so I was watching a lot of the the plays from last season and a lot of those sacks were were a result of some interior pressure now you've had to replace a lot of the interior and and you've done a lot of that through the transfer portal how how difficult is that when you're you know trying to to blend guys because your Edge guys are guys you're bringing back your your interior guys you got a lot of transfers how long does it take to get that chemistry right and figure out what the best combinations are the biggest thing you know for us defensively you know from a program standpoint from a philosophy standpoint it's about getting guys who want to play extremely hard extremely hard right within a system within a structure of the defense but playing like their hair is on fire you know we're going to play a fair amount of guys up front because we want guys to have the opportunity to play fresh put good stuff on tape But ultimately who can get it done and so that's what you can see with us you know we got guys who are just going to go and play really hard and get put their best stuff on tape because we talk about you know if this is something that you want to do how much are you willing to sacrifice for your brother next to you right and a lot of that you know equates to effort and what that looks like on tape it shouldn't be a question about how hard you're playing if you're changing speed you need to show up in the endzone copy and the bottom line and so we do a lot as it relates to showing that um reiterating that concept and that mentality and uh we hold the guys of that standard it it is what it is so when when you guys started to because last season as the season went on it felt like everything started to come together for you guys and and by the end of the season it felt very different than it felt in the beginning could you guys feel that happening you know as a coaching staff as you know as a team as that was going on as as everything was sarting to click together as a coach you're really try not to zoom out right and look at the macro you need to be extremely myopic um and the things that you know equate to success and equate to winning right that's been detailed that's holding each other accountable staff and coaches that's um being intentional about what does work how can you get the guys to play as fast as possible uh consistently and what you want to do is make sure that the progress that you gain is it continues and it's that it's sustainable and that you understand to be successful that progress is going to be incremental like it's not going to happen overnight particularly when you have 11 11 young men out at a time playing the guys that we play and expect it to happen that quickly so over the course of time the guys were able to just continue to improve and we kept challenging as coaches challenging ourselves challenging them and uh it just got better as a year went on well and the other thing is this defense did grow up I mean you've got a bunch of guys who two years ago were playing as freshman and red shirt freshman like your corner man sort of Lane this is a guy who who had to play a bunch as a as a freshman and now here he goes into his junior year and you're you're seeing him you know in the first round of mock drafts for next year how how big is it just that some of these guys had to learn by playing you get better at football by playing football I I really believe that I mean this is a grown man sport um it's a lot of speed and mass moving at the same time uh I mean you get better by playing it and so you know throughout the course of the first season we were here and the course of the last season that we had you did watch a lot of maturation show um you saw development happen on the field both in positive ways and negative ways right nobody played perfect um you learned from mistakes and you grew with things that you did well us as coaches as well and so man you're going to continue to see that you know football is an imperfect game played by imperfect people but the standards that we set and how we hold each other accountable and how we decide to play and coach on a daily basis that that's going to be indicative of the level of success that we can have if you haven't downloaded the price pick app yet do it now sign up use the code Staples you play $5 you get $50 instantly to play with they have just started populating the board for week one and we talked about it yesterday they had some of the Thursday games up now some of the Saturday games up you've got Georgia Clemson squares you've got Florida Miami squares you got Texas A&M and Notre Dame squares you also have have a free square a free Square featuring Jaylen milro the Alabama quarterback if he passes for half a yard on Saturday if you've picked that square you are going to win that square remember with prize picks you pick two or more squares the more squares you pick the higher your potential payout they're saying if you pick Jaylen milro with this Square you are gonna win it as long as he throws for a yard which he probably will so you pick your free square and then if you pick another square that that hits you're going to win the question is what's your square is it Kade kumnick more or less than 195 and a half passing yard 190 and a half passing yards is it Graham Merz against Miami more or less than 249 and a half passing yards cam Wards on there too that's the other quarterback in that Florida Miami game 256 and a half passing yards more or less so lots of different ways to play download the app use the code Staples play pay $5 to get $50 instantly you talked about one of those guys that that play with their hair on fire uh APR Antoine pow Ryland tell tell me a little bit about him because he seems like he's one of those guys he absolutely is right and he's somebody that that we push I mean he loves the game he he loves rushing the quarterback um and you know he came back this year and we challenged him in certain areas and he's worked his behind off to grow in those areas and so you know we're asking him to lead by his influence and by his Play How He approaches each day consistently and uh we've been asking him to do it and he's done it and so we're excited to continue to push him in work so you guys open this week at Vanderbilt and it's an interesting situation because uh they're bringing in a new quarterback in Diego Pavia he was the the New Mexico State quarterback last year the the viewers know who that is because we talked about him a bunch last year at New Mexico state but for you when you're watching a quarterback who you saw play for another team last year going and joining a new team where you've got film of those players but not necessarily that offense that quarterback how hard is it to prepare for something like that yeah first games are always challenging I mean I I think there's some overlap between a first game and a bowl game particularly one that's later in the bowl season because there is a level of newness um and Novelty that you just have to plan for and so and so when you when you look at a young man and the quarterbacks that they have on their roster um I have tremendous amount of respect for them you look at production you look at ability um you talk about young men who know how to who know how to play football with grit leadership it jumps off the tape um again so we know we know we have a challenge in front of us and we're excited so I I have a question I I always wondered this about Virginia Tech and and you know you've now assumed the the role of defensive coordinator which of course Bud Foster held so well for so long and he introduced the the lunch pail and coach Beamer introduced the lunch pail to Virginia Tech how do you decide which player gets to carry the lunch pail yeah I can't give away house Secrets but what I can tell you is that uh the guy who's carrying it he he is certainly uh emblematic of what we stand for in in the and the ideals and values that we teach is there actual snacks in there can't give away how Secrets man all right I I I had to ask I had to all right so your guy who played it Vanderbilt you played in a bunch of cool SEC stadiums you worked at Florida State youve worked you know at different schools across the country but what's it like when you when you get a you know you get to Virginia Tech and you're out there and and that inner Sandman starts playing for the first time what what does that feel like yeah I can take you back even before the first game in 21 I guess it was 22 um we just we had a spring ball the spring game excuse me and you talk about the of excitement engagement um just uh just buy in and ownership that the community has for the program I felt it at the Spring ball game and and so you fast forward a couple of months just in 20122 and you go to the first home game and you feel the energy and the connection between the community and the program um just on an entrance I mean it's it's very unique um very unique unlike anywhere else I've ever been quite frankly yeah that's I just I can't imagine what it's like you know in the tunnel as you're getting ready and and as all this these people are just jumping up and down can you hear can you feel them can you hear them you jumping on top of you oh yeah that's incredible that is incredible all right so we mentioned you played at Vanderbilt your senior year was 2010 that was the year that that Bobby joh Johnson retired 2011 last season oh 2011 I'm sorry yes that's right so Bobby Johnson retires and Robby Caldwell takes over his head coach which I was present for Robbie Caldwell's SEC media day you press conference which maybe the greatest press conference of all time certainly the first press conference I've ever been involved in uh where a coach talked about being on the turkey insemination crew but I gotta ask you what was that year like in terms of spe es pregame postgame pre-practice post like what kind of speeches does Robbie cwell give as the head coach Yeah man so I I love Coach cwell man he was he's actually one of the men that I called when I became very interested in becoming a coach um somebody who I respect immensely and and when he was the associate head coach if I remember correctly associate head coach offensive line coach before Coach Johnson retired he his role was that of the disciplinarian right that of the the guy that you don't want to see um if you kind of got into trouble and that was that was what everybody really thought about him until he assumed the role of head coach um he couldn't he couldn't have been more of a players coach um connected to the uh the inner workings of the day-to-day life of a of a young man who's a student athlete on that campus and just somebody who really cared about um the long the longevity of you as a player but also your life after football so he's somebody that I have again tremendous amount of respect for him and his wife and his family um and was really good to us as players and and he went on to be a very good offensive line coach on those really good Clemson teams and you know when you call him and say hey coach I'm thinking about getting into that business what kind of advice does he give you yeah it's kind of like the advice I got from everyone I mean I call Coach Bry amongst a number of other coaches and the first thing that the question you always get is are you sure you want to do this because there are a number of challenges with this profession that most people don't really see um there that are behind the curtain the sacrifices that come um with your family the time allocation that's necessary to be really good at this job if you want to be really good um and the dedication that's necessary in order to see it through and so that's the first question that you get and then the second the second thing that came out of his mouth was a statement is and he said uh I knew I always knew you're going to be a coach you're going to be really good at this and to get affirmation like that from somebody that saw you as a as a young man playing football who had no um desire whatsoever to get into coaching for him to immediately say that um was certainly affirmation for me to go right go down this path and I'm glad that I have and and you mentioned asking coach pry about Brent pry your current boss at Virginia Tech at that point I mean you're probably not thinking hey this guy's going to be the head coach and I'm going to be the DC for him someday but could could you tell hey this he he's keeping an eye on me well coach briyan I've always had a a really close relationship I mean I was his started Mike linebacker the year that I was with him um he he would have us over to his home all the time and take care of us in terms of uh meals provided um when we get I had the opportunity to do uh what do you call those uh I forget those meals that you can have the occasional meal I believe it's turn for it right have us over he'd also have us over on Thanksgiving um take us out there was a time there was an occasion where I actually couldn't make it I was studying for an exam and Coach got me a meal and actually brought it to where I were staying that day so you you talk about somebody who has a tremendous amount of investment in his players who cares about their well-being and even when I was no longer playing for him but still living in Nashville not in coaching yet he would uh he would inquire as to how I was doing how my fiance who's my wife now at the time was doing and still inv me over to to uh just come fellowship and I I I no longer played another snap for him so you talk about somebody who's extremely invested and interested in you I mean so that just goes to say who he is now as a leader of our program as a head coach if that's who he was as a position coach so man we're we're lucky and thankful how excited are you to get this thing kicked off this is you got a team that you know I talked to other people in the ACC they're they're scared of you slash excited about what you can be you've seen it from the inside how excited are you for this season yeah I'll tell you what man you know a lot of people outside looking in look at um look at what we do for a living coaching football you know working almost incessantly year round 24365 for 12 guaranteed opportunities and just don't understand it but man we we love what we do we're really excited about this first game um we've been banging and um had in Camp for the last month or so and and we're ready to suit it up and go have the opportunity to play against another opponent and so man that's all we're focused on right now I can't tell you anything about the season I couldn't tell you who we play I mean I don't know all I know is about us this week that we're laser focused on what the opportunity we have in front of us and uh we'll talk about the next one when it comes Chris Marv heading back to Nashville to face the Elma Mo good luck hey thanks Andy good talking with you thank you so much for watching just a reminder subscribe to this channel right here so you never miss an episode of Andy Staples on 3 and oh by the way watch all the other great videos on the Onre Sports YouTube channel