July 9, 2010
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A pair of starting linebackers and the reigning Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year will represent the Vanderbilt football team later this month at SEC Media Days.
Junior linebacker Chris Marve, a second team All-SEC pick in 2009 and the league’s top returning tackler, sophomore running back-return specialist Warren Norman and senior linebacker John Stokes will join Head Coach Bobby Johnson as Commodore representatives at the event near Birmingham.
SEC Media Days is scheduled July 21-23 in the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Ala., with the Vanderbilt contingent scheduled to appear on July 22. Annually, the spectacle attracts more than 600 media representatives eager to talk with the league’s 12 head coaches and selected student-athletes about the approaching SEC football season.
SEC officials will announce the complete list of 36 student-athletes expected to appear at Media Days on Monday.
This marks the expansion of players attending Media Days since the league created the event bringing coaches and players to media outlets at one location. In previous years, just two Commodore student-athletes were allowed to participate with Coach Johnson at the event.
Johnson said the trio of Marve, Norman and Stokes will be tremendous representatives for the Vanderbilt program.
“Chris, Warren and John will be outstanding representatives for our football team,” Johnson said. “All three are accomplished football players and quality young men off the field.”
Norman, the team’s top returning rushers and the SEC freshman record holder for all-purpose yardage, will become just the second Commodore sophomore to appear at Media Days. In 2003, sophomore quarterback Jay Cutler made the first of three eventual Media Day appearances.
In addition to playing in the same linebacking corps, Marve and Stokes also share the same hometown. Both hail from Memphis: Marve graduating from White Station High School; Stokes from Memphis University School.
Marve, elected as one of four Commodore co-captains at the conclusion of spring drills last April, enters the 2010 season trying to become the first SEC player to achieve three consecutive seasons of at least 100 tackles since former Vanderbilt All-America Jamie Winborn accomplished the feat in the 1998-2000 seasons.
Stokes, the son of Vanderbilt graduates who doubles as the Commodores’ primary long snapper, is one of the nation’s top scholar-athletes. He is a two-time district Academic All-American who gained acceptance into Vanderbilt Medical School in just his third year of undergraduate work.
