NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- 48 hours ahead of his head coaching debut at Norfolk State, Michael Vick has plenty of emotions going through his head. Nervous, however, isn't a word he would use to describe his current state.
"It's more excitement than anything," Vick said Tuesday afternoon. "I feel like we worked so hard to get to this point and I'm just super excited to see our guys go out there and work."
"We've been preparing for this moment for a very long time, since the day I set foot on this campus," added redshirt sophomore quarterback Israel Carter. "We're looking forward to the opportunity. You get those butterflies as the game gets closer."
The Spartans kick off their 2025 season Thursday night at Dick Price Stadium against Towson, the first showcase of a team that's reinvented itself under Vick. As kickoff nears, the head coach has plenty on his plate in terms of preparation, media obligations and getting his team mentally ready. He's taking things one minute at a time.
"I'm just trying to stay as even-keeled as possible," Vick noted. "It just feels good to go against somebody else, but everything surrounding what's happening on campus, I'm used to it and they'll get used to it as well because hopefully it'll be an ongoing thing."
Thursday night's game will be televised nationally on ESPNU. The festivities will start early, as ESPN's First Take will broadcast live from Echols Hall from 10 a.m.-noon. It will mark the most highly-anticipated game for the program in quite some time, perhaps its history. Vick says the brighter spotlight is big, not just for the football team, but for the university itself.
"Now we have an opportunity to get more exposure, to put ourselves in a public spotlight," the head coach pointed out. "I think that's a really cool thing for this school. They deserve it, it's been a long time coming and so now we've just to go put the product on the field."
For Vick, it's also about responsibility. He knows what he was brought to the program to do and wants to represent the green and gold to the best of his ability, like he's tried to do at every stage of his career for whatever organization of which he was a part.
"If I'm representing somebody else's brand, that's a responsibility to me," he said. "It's a responsibility to represent the brand and your brand as well. Now my brand consists of me representing the school that's trying to take it to another level and trying to elevate and that's what it's been about."
As for the Spartans themselves, they feel a responsibility to their university, but also to Vick. Carter pointed out the team is putting its own emphasis on picking up coaching victory number one for its leader.
"There's a lot of people that say 'can Coach Vick do this his first year? Can he turn the whole script around with Norfolk State?," the quarterback said. "We know the talent that we have and we want to represent Coach. We know all eyes are on him and we want to do our best to honor him."
WTKR News 3's coverage of Michael Vick's head coaching debut begins at noon Thursday with live reports from Norfolk State.
