Norfolk State hired Michael Vick to lead its college football program at the end of December. This upcoming season will be his first as a head coach on any level of the sport.
Although the last eight months have generated a lot of hype around the Spartans for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, there was a learning curve.
Vick called upon his network of friends and former teammates for advice. His ultimate goal is to be the facilitator of change for a college football team that has not had any success in recent history.
Norfolk State is terrible.
The Spartans moved to the Football Championship Subdivision in 1997.
They made the playoffs just one time (as MEAC champions in 2011) but they got smacked in the first round and all of their wins were later vacated because of an NCAA rules violation. They have had just one winning season since the turn of the decade.
All five head coaches before Michael Vick had losing records. Dawson Odums was fired in November after he went 15-31 in four seasons. Norfolk State went 4-8 last year.
Needless to say, this is an uphill battle for one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. 6-6 would be a very positive result for the first-year head coach at season’s end but his sights are set even higher.
The 45-year-old refuses to accept reality during his first year at the helm. He is choosing to believe this team has what it takes to compete on the highest level. It is not a gimmick.
With that being said, Vick understands the challenge that is ahead of him.
“My vision was to implement change,” he told ESPN. “It’s all about elevation and it’s a one day at a time process. Things don’t happen overnight. I wanted to understand what happened in the past, what they felt could have been done better. And then you can kind of merge that with my direction.”
Part of his mindset for the present day stems from the experience of others. Like Deion Sanders.
Michael Vick is leading with compassion.
One particular conversation with Coach Prime really hit home for Vick. When asked about things like recruiting and how to run a program, Sanders told him to “make it what you want it to be.”
That message might seem vague and obvious but it helped to shape Vick’s approach to his new role.
“When Deion said it, it kind of registered with me,” he said to ESPN. “I realized this program has got to be what I want. They’re not here every day to help me. They can only give me so much. When I’m asking for advice on things, I know of know the answer, but I just need to hear the confirmation.”
Honesty is perhaps the most prominent focus for Michael Vick. He actively encourages Norfolk State players to leave for more NIL money if they are offered a sum the Spartans cannot match. His punishment policy leaves a lot of room for grace if/when a young athlete makes a mistake like he did.
Quarterback Israel Carter described his head coach as “laidback.” Rarely does Vick raise his voice.
“He takes a calm approach,” said Norfolk State director of football operations DeMarcus McMillan. “Sometimes as a leader, if you have to raise your voice, that’s not effective, especially with the generation of kids we have these days. Raising your voice is not the approach he should take with them. I think the coaches around him raise their voices enough.”
This approach to the job presents a stark contrast to many other coaches around the country. Hugh Freeze threw his clipboard and screamed at his quarterback at practice just last week, for example.
Michael Vick does not see the value to that style of coaching. He’d rather build his players up through teaching than tear them down through criticism!