Brent Pry Gives Honest Reason For Firing Defensive Coordinator Chris Marve

The Virginia Tech football team finished 6-6 this season and while it was good enough to earn a bowl berth and a spot in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Jan. 3, it didn’t come close to meeting expectations in 2024. Five of the Hokies' six losses were by one score and while it’s crazy to think that all of those scores could have been flipped to wins, there is no reason as to why they couldn’t have won eight or nine games.

There were many factors as to why Virginia Tech finished at .500 for a second consecutive season, but one of them was because of the way the defense was not able to close out games late in the fourth quarter. One stop here or one stop there and there is a different feeling around the team and fanbase. 

Thursday night, it was announced that head coach Brent Pry was firing three assistant coaches, including defensive coordinator Chris Marve. When Pry was hired in Blacksburg after a stint as the defensive coordinator at Penn State, he hired Marve and took him under his wing as a DC. After three seasons, Pry had to move on from his friend in a tough decision, and on Friday, he spoke about why he let Marve go.

Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry reveals decision to fire Chris Marve

Firing Marve was a tough decision and in the end, it was the decision that had to be made. You hate to see anyone lose their job, but college football is a business that thrives on results and the results were not good enough for Virginia Tech, especially late in games with the game on the line. That had a lot to do with the decision to move on from Marve.

"We didn’t play good enough defense, particularly at the end of games,’’ said Pry. “To me, you win championships on defense. And the onus is on me, it’s on all of us who have anything to do with what we’re doing defensively."

It feels like this season was a swing-and-miss for the Hokies as a program and changes had to be made. Again, some stops defensively at the end of the games and a few more wins and things are different, but some changes needed to be made and Pry did what he had to do, something a lot of people didn’t think he’d do.