Virginia Tech’s Corey Marshall Seeks To Get it Right the Second Time Around

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Defensive Tackle Corey Marshall is lucky to be able to play once more for Frank Beamer’s Hokies, and he knows it. Marshall took leave from the team last August to tend to “personal matters.”  Although Marshall has steadfastly declined to elaborate on what this issues were, saying only they were not legal related, he appears to have put those matters to bed.  He has been back with the team for the past few months and participated in the spring practice sessions.  At the conclusion of the spring practice last week, Marshall was awarded the George Prease Award given to the team’s defensive MVP each year.

Corey Marshall is a 6-1 257 pound junior from Dinwiddie High School.  After leaving the team in August, he ended up redshirting for the 2013 season.  This sudden break came after two productive seasons for the Hokies.  He had 39 tackles and 4.5 sacks in those two seasons as a rotational player at defensive end.  For the 2014 season, he plans on being a big part of Bud Foster’s defense, and competing for a starting gig as an interior defensive lineman.  Although relatively undersized at the new position, he has great speed that allows him to minimize the effect of lining up against players that he gives up between 40 and 70 pounds to on a weekly basis.

"“I think he is probably an All-ACC performer,” raves Luther Maddy, another defensive lineman for the Hokies (h/t Andy Bitter, Roanoke Times)."

It says a lot that Maddy, the Hokies top returning defensive tackle, thinks so highly of him.  The Hokies need a replacement for Third Team All American Derrick Hopkins who graduated, and Corey Marshall has stepped up in spring practice and seems to have the inside track to be that replacement, outplaying other options such as Nigel Williams and Vinny Mihota.  However, Marshall has taken a roundabout road to get this far.  He knows that he needs to stay on the straight and narrow in order to achieve his goals.  He also know Bud Foster is going to play whoever will get the job done and continue to put a championship caliber defense on the field in 2014.  Right now, that means Corey Marshall.

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