Michael Vick has only been a college football head coach for 15 minutes, but he’s already being suggested as the next coach at a non-HBCU school.
Bruce Feldman, the National College Football Insider for The Athletic and a sideline reporter for FOX College Football, dropped an article on Sunday that provided possible targets for the next Virginia Tech coach after the school fired Brent Pry.
Here is what Feldman, who ironically enough broke the news that then-Jackson State coach Deion Sanders had mutual interest in the Colorado job (before he eventually took it following the 2022 season), wrote about Vick and Virginia Tech.
The wild-card candidate is probably the greatest player in Hokies history: Michael Vick, who carried them to the 2000 BCS title game.
The Hampton Roads product from Newport News, Va., jumped into the college coaching ranks last winter, taking the job at FCS Norfolk State. He’s 1-2 and learning on the job. It’s too soon to tell much from how things are going to go for him as a college coach, though he would be able to recruit very well in his home state. But getting a more experienced, proven head coach might seem like a safer option after Pry, a first-time head coach, failed to gain any traction building up this program.
Feldman listed names like South Carolina coach Shane Beamer, Ohio State wide receivers coach Brian Hartline, and former Hampton assistant and current Southern Miss. coach Charles Huff who would make solid candidates for the job, too.
Feldman wasn’t the only college football reporter to connect Vick with Virginia Tech. On3 Sports writer Pete Nakos also mentioned (behind a paywall) the Norfolk State coach as someone the school should consider.
What does this all mean? Could Vick be a serious candidate?
Vick has gone on record to proclaim that he did want to be a Power Four coach at some point, saying, “I see myself potentially going to a Power Five one day. That’s the goal. Anything I get myself involved in, I’m always going to look into the future and where I can take it or where I can go.”
But he remains committed to building the Norfolk State football program and coaching chops.
After all, Vick is just three games into his tenure and has yet to prove anything at the collegiate level. While some alums and boosters might be led by nostalgia for wanting Vick, Virginia Tech desperately wants to win now with a proven winner.
He’s not Sanders, who quickly turned Jackson State into an HBCU juggernaut, or Eddie George, who led Tennessee State to a conference championship before bolting for Bowling Green after four seasons.
Trusting a green coach — no matter his celebrity status or ties to the school likely won’t be the play.
