Chris Marve Named Co-ACC Coordinator of the Week by 247Sports

Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Chris Marve earned Co-ACC Coordinator of the Week Honors.

Virginia Tech Defensive Coordinator Chris Marve / Virginia Tech Athletics

Chris Marve, a former Vanderbilt linebacker, has excelled in his duties at Virginia Tech as the defensive coordinator.

247Sports named Marve the Co-ACC Coordinator of the Week in their weekly 'Coordinators of the Week' segment. He shared this honor with Georgia Tech's defensive coordinator, Tyler Santucci.

Marve played a large role in the Hokies' success against Stanford on Saturday. The Cardinal were held to their lowest amount of points scored all season with seven, their lowest amount of yards gained with 258, and their lowest amount of passing yards with 122. Stanford's only scoring play was a flea-flicker pass from running back Micah Ford to wide receiver Elic Ayomanor that was tightly covered, but hauled in by Ayomanor on the sideline.

The defensive line was possibly the best it has been allseason, with backup defensive linemen Malachi Madison and James Jennette recording their first sacks on the season, on their first tackles of the season. 247Sports praised Chris Marve's pass rush, here's an excerpt from Kolby Crawford of 247Sports:

"The Hokies' pass rush was a difference-maker also throughout the game, recording five sacks and limiting Stanford quarterback Justin Lamson to just 104 passing yards. The defensive front, led by Antwaun Powell-Ryland, consistently applied pressure, preventing Stanford from establishing any rhythm in the passing game. While Powell-Ryland didn't register a sack, the rest of the defensive unit stepped up, with redshirt freshmen Aycen Stevens and Jason Abbey making key contributions in the trenches."

The secondary also played a significant role in the Hokies' win. Defensive back Keonta Jenkins hauled in an interception, and Mose Phillips and Keonta Jenkins had tackles-for-loss on the day. In coordination with the pass rush, the Hokies' secondary limited Justin Lamson to 4.3 yards per attempt. Even star receivers like Elic Ayomanor were mainly a non-factor, and Virginia Tech had their best performance to date.

Head Coach Brent Pry loved what he saw from the defense on Saturday and talked about them at length:

"Yeah that's who we need to be, you know, we have to be an aggressive defense that can cause some mayhem. That's too important with the style of defense that we want to play. So the minus-yard plays, the sacks, I thought we were physical today, I thought there were some good hits on their ball carriers. That's a good sign, I don't think we've seen that all year, I mean we were physical and some balls popped out, and obviously Keonta's interception and being able to convert that you know, after the field goal, with the roughing the kicker. The takeaways, when you steal possessions in a game like that, against an offense like that, with the game plan they had, invaluable."