BOULDER — Chris Marve came to Colorado knowing he would have a chance to be a defensive coordinator again. He just didn’t know it would happen so soon.

“Man, things happen fast in this profession,” the Buffaloes’ new defensive coordinator said Wednesday after the team wrapped up its second practice of the spring.

Marve came to CU fully ready to accept his role as Deion Sanders’ linebackers coach and earn his way back to being a coordinator after being fired following three seasons in that role at Virginia Tech. He spent the 2025 season traveling around the country, interning with NFL teams like the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams, as well as visiting various college programs.

“I learned how to be a better teacher,” Marve said. “I got to see a lot of different things that challenged what I thought, but also really reinforced some things that I really fundamentally believe in and still believe in. If you’re not adapting in this game, you’re gonna die.”

The former Vanderbilt linebacker who had coached the position for the majority of his post-playing career is adapting on the fly right now as he’s still just a week removed from being promoted from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator by Coach Prime in the wake of Robert Livingston’s departure to the Denver Broncos, where he will serve as defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach.

“I’ve drank a lot of coffee — Starbucks,” Marve said. “The person who opens the door, me and them are best friends right now. It’ll probably continue to be that way for a while and that’s OK.

“As you can imagine, five days before spring ball rolls, you have a plan of action and a direction that you plan on going in defensively and all of a sudden it changes. I had to put that defensive coordinator hat back on.”

Marve isn’t overhauling what Livingston built in Boulder, but the Buffs certainly needed an offseason reset defensively after a disappointing 2025 season that followed a major step in the right direction in 2024.

There’s a decent chance the 11 defensive starters in Week 1 at Georgia Tech in early September are all newcomers. There are plenty of intriguing transfers to build around, including linebacker Liona Lefau (Texas), defensive back Boo Carter (Tennessee) and defensive lineman Santana Hopper (Tulane).

There’s also new coaches working with all three levels of the defense. Now, with Marve calling plays, it’s a completely clean slate that excites him.

“For me and most of the defense, when we play that first game in the stadium, it’ll be all of our first game in the stadium,” Marve said. “That’ll be a unique and cool experience together. We get to all do this thing one time this year with this team in this moment and that’s special. I think we have really good kids who have the right mindset and approach and heart. We’ve just got a lot of work to do.”

Before fully diving in to installing a scheme, that work starts this spring with simply figuring out what Marve has to work with. Like Livingston, Marve wants to be a coach who understands the skill sets of his players and puts them in the best position to succeed. But there are certain traits that are required to see the field for him.

“First of all, it’s mindset. How you approach the game, playing together as a unit,” Marve said. “Certainly, you need to be situationally very efficient. I’m talking third down, talking red zone, understanding personnel and how offenses are attacking you. You’ve never seen a championship defense with 10 people. It takes all 11, and sometimes more than that. That’s what it takes for us in order to be successful. 

“You can fix a lot of problems on defense with effort, with mindset and the style of play, as opposed to the structural things that you’re doing. That’s what spring ball, for us, is about in a lot of ways. It’s establishing an identity.”