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New Rams defensive coordinator is former Grey Cup winner

Marvin Pope has a long history of playing and coaching in Canada.
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The Langley Rams will have a new defensive coordinator when the team takes to the field in 2018.

Former CFL Defensive All-Star and Calgary Stampeders assistant coach Marvin Pope has signed on, Rams general manager Howie Zaron and head coach Matt “Snoop” Blokker announced Friday.

Pope follows Blokker to the West Coast out of the Calgary Colts Junior Football program, where he had been defensive coordinator since 2014.

Pope and Blokker took over a Colts team that went winless in 2013 and coached them to three consecutive Prairie Football Conference Championship Games, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Pope’s defensive units were among the best in the Canadian Junior Football League in each of the seasons he was with the Colts. His 2016 squad led the league in interceptions, was second in points allowed, second in passing yards allowed and second in touchdowns allowed.

Marvin is a native of Gainesville Florida and was a two-time NAIA All American and Black College All American at Central State University in Ohio, where he was a member of the Marauders 1990 NAIA National Championship team.

Pope signed with the Calgary Stampeders in 1992 and won the Grey Cup in his first season. He appeared in five consecutive Western Conference Championship games and was a two-time CFL All Star (1993, ‘94), earning the nickname “Big Daddy” after converting from defensive line to middle linebacker and then setting a CFL record with 14 tackles in the 1992 Labour Day Classic versus Edmonton.

Following his six-year CFL Career (1992-‘97) Pope began his coaching career at Calgary’s Springbank High, helping them win the 1999 City Championship in his first season. He then joined the coaching staff at Calgary’s Henry Wisewood High in 2000 and led them to both a City and Provincial Championship.

Pope joined the Calgary Stampeders staff as an assistant defensive line and linebackers coach in 2010 and returned to high cchool coaching in 2013, where he won a City Championship at Robert Thirsk High.

Pope had made charitable contributions to the community as a member of the Stampeders Alumni, Alberta Big Brothers, and Sisters, Minor Football, Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House.