By William C. Rhoden
The talk about Michael Vick becoming college football coach began as a whisper last week. On Tuesday, it became a scream.
Vick — NFL superstar, icon, street legend, former inmate and documentarian — is now the football coach of the Norfolk State Spartans, as he announced on social media Tuesday. This apparently was a fast-moving train. Vick met with university president Javaune Adams-Gaston and athletic director Melody Webb and subsequently forged an agreement. In accepting the Norfolk State job, Vick did what he did not do coming out of high school when he walked past Norfolk State and chose Virginia Tech. The 44-year-old former NFL quarterback is now embracing a program at a historically Black university that desperately needs his help.
This was a copycat hire of the first order. Call it the Deion Sanders effect.
And who knows? It may work.
In September 2020, Jackson State hired Sanders despite his limited coaching experience. The difference is that Sanders, who became known as Coach Prime, had talent — his sons, quarterback Shedeur and safety Shilo. A year later, Sanders recruited two-way star Travis Hunter, who was named Heisman Trophy winner on Dec. 14.
Sanders immediately attracted national attention to Jackson State and turned the program around. Sanders led Jackson State to a 27-6 record over three seasons. The Tigers won the regular season Southwestern Athletic Conference championship twice in a row.
A year after Jackson State hired Sanders, Tennessee State hired Eddie George, the 1995 Heisman Trophy winner in 2021. There were a rough couple of seasons, but George stayed the course. This season Tennessee State won a share of the conference title and earned an FCS playoff appearance. Norfolk State can only hope that Vick brings half those results — on or off the field. Will he stay the course when the program under his watch hits rough waters?
The program desperately needs Vick. Norfolk State jumped from Division II CIAA in 1997 to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Norfolk State has earned one FCS playoff bid. The Spartans won their only MEAC title in 2011, but the school vacated the title because Norfolk State used ineligible players.
Vick has no formal coaching experience, though he was a training camp intern with the Kansas City Chiefs. In 2019, he was supposed to be offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Legends of the now-defunct Alliance of American Football but his broadcasting duties reportedly kept him from filling the position. Since 2017, Vick has worked for Fox Sports as an NFL analyst.
I’m not sure what exactly makes a great coach, but Vick possesses intangibles that can help Norfolk State’s beleaguered program. While he is not a Hall of Famer like Sanders or George, Vick is a legend in his own right, especially in the Tidewater area, where he was a high school star at Ferguson and Warwick high schools. Like George (Ohio State) and Sanders (Florida State) Vick did not choose the HBCU route. Instead, he accepted a football scholarship to Virginia Tech and lifted that program like Norfolk State hopes he will lift the Spartans. After a redshirt year, Vick led Virginia Tech to the 1999 Big East title and the national championship game against Florida State.
That season was my first contact with Vick, and he was a revelation — the face of the future of NFL quarterbacking. Every young Black quarterback was inspired by Vick. In 2001, he became the first African American quarterback to be taken first overall in the NFL draft.
I also followed Vick’s downfall from a dogfighting conviction and the government’s aggressive prosecution of the case. There were no slaps on the wrist. Vick served nearly two years in prison. He emerged from prison and remade his career with the Philadelphia Eagles. There is nothing glamorous about a prison sentence, but Vick brings an element of realistic authenticity that not many coaches can say they have.
Before his deal with Norfolk State was announced, there was a report that Vick was also in talks with Sacramento State to become that school’s coach. There clearly was not the same amount of enthusiasm about Vick from Sacramento State as there was from Norfolk State. The report was immediately shot down by internal sources who said that Vick was not a candidate.
Sacramento State apparently had $50 million in NIL money to go after recruits. I doubt if Norfolk State has that kind of money to spend. But the Spartans need Vick, and he means more to Norfolk State than he’ll ever mean to Sacramento State.
In any event, Vick is a football coach now. He has gone from the whisper of possibility to a scream of reality.