Norfolk State HC Michael Vick's Rutgers postgame press conference

NCAA Football: Norfolk State at Rutgers — Sep 13, 2025; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; Norfolk State Spartans head coach Michael Vick looks on before the game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at SHI Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

New Norfolk State head coach Michael Vick spoke with the media following the Spartans’ 60-10 loss to Rutgers at SHI Stadium on Saturday.

He offered his thoughts on the game, his team’s performance, as well as how they can use takeaways from this game in the rest of the season. He also touched on facing the Scarlet Knights as a coach after playing them in college, and his talk with head coach Greg Schiano following the game.

Norfolk State fell to 1-2 with the loss, while Rutgers improved to 3-0 and clinched its fifth straight unbeaten nonconference slate. The Scarlet Knights face off against Iowa in each team’s Big Ten opener.

Today was tough, we definitely didn’t expect to lose by that wide kind of a margin. Started out
slow, gave them a 13 point deficit right off the break, two block kicks. And from there the game
plan just changed.

But we had some good plays, couldn’t get no stops on defense, gave up a bunch of big plays.
And so from there we just got to go back to the drawing board and clean this up. We still got a
lot to clean up.

You know, I think the guys in the locker room acknowledge that. But this one’s going to sting.
It’s going to sting for a long time regardless of who you’re playing and who the opponent is.
And, you know, they got to keep their chins up and just get ready for next week. That’s the most
important thing. I can’t say put this behind us right now, it’s too fresh.

But definitely put ourselves in a position moving forward where those type of things don’t
happen. Especially early in the game. So I’m not making any excuses.
They’re a good football team. But we got to get better. So, questions? You played this program
twice, 25 years ago as a player.

How different are they from when they were then to now? How do you see them playing with
it? I mean, as far as now, I mean, I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you, you know, versus what I faced
back in the day. But, you know, I do know that World Coast Football Team, the good football
team is strong.

They have some good players. And it was a good test for us. It was a good challenge.
And, you know, I can’t wait to go watch it. But, you know, for our players, it’s got to be a good
experience. And hopefully they’ll take away a lot from it.

They will. And obviously you got to take the positives. Take the positives out of it.
And, you know, keep pushing. Pushing is just one game. John Hart here from Traffic US.
Most HBCUs are off the road a little bit. Do you agree? You know, despite the tough loss, how,
you know, important or pivotal are these games? And, you know, will you guys get a chance to
play against the big 10? That’s just you figuring out, right? No, these games are important.
Every game is important.

It’s an opportunity to go out and compete. And compete hard. And one game is going to set
you up for the next.

And every experience matters. So, we got to always go into a game thinking that we’re going to
win. Knowing that we’re going to win, man.

That’s always my message. We’re going to the game knowing that we’re going to win. Not
hoping.

So, one, we got to get better in all three phases. We showed today. And we just got to continue
to work hard.

We got to continue to find ways to get better. Most importantly. Did it bother you that the last
two drafts, that it was going to fall deep and perform profoundly? It didn’t bother me at all.
I mean, it’s football. They’re entitled to do whatever they want to do. It’s our job to stop them
and get off the field.

We have our offensive opportunities. And when we do get a stop, we go out there and we
fumble the ball. And so, that’s a lack of focus.

That’s not taking advantage of the opportunity. Taking advantage of the moment. And so, they
capitalized on it.

So, I haven’t been in that situation before. So, I don’t know what happened. But, for us, you got
to be ready for every situation.

I was talking about being situational masters. And that was a situation where we failed. You
guys were able to get some success on the ground in the second and third quarters, including
the touchdown drive.

How can you take the successes that you had getting your guys into space and kind of put them
into the next games in the season? Yeah, well, you know, obviously, running the football is
something that we want to do. We want to try to get K-1 going. You know, we fall to these types
of deficits now that, you know, you got to slow it down and you got to try to go tempo and try
to find ways to get first guys to pull the ball.

We was at a disadvantage in a lot of situations. And so, moving forward, you know, you can’t
create those types of deficits. Every game is not going to be like last week.
We’re going to be able to come back and pull it out. You know, it’s a good football team over
there. And so, regardless of what conference they’re in or, you know, status of that team, it’s
still an opportunity to compete at a high level.

Getting reps, every rep is important. And so, you know, we got to learn from this one, for sure.
Can I follow up on that? I know it’s early, but are there any positives you can take away from
something like this? I mean, there got to be positives out of everything.
Yeah. I think, you know, I think we was moving the football. We was moving the ball.
You know, we had some good play calls, missing things. You know, it was just when you start
out in the 14-point deficit against a team like that, you know, I can’t say that we started
pressing, but it just kind of took us out of our game plan a little bit. We definitely could have
slowed it down.

I think we had a drive going, and then we had some penalties. We was in like a third and 30,
one of those type of situations. And so, you know, at one point, we felt like we had some
momentum.

We was getting back into it. But, obviously, on the defensive side of the ball, you got to get
stops. And so, it goes both ways.
And so, I’m not going to make any excuses. We got to pick up the pieces and find ways to get
back. So cool.

I want to ask, you know, how does it feel to take a step away from the game? You know, how
does it feel to kind of see the landscape of football today in the NFL and NCAA kind of mimic
and embrace your style of play that was once looked at as kind of taboo and kind of frowned
upon? You know, you see it on all sorts of levels and stuff now. You know, what does that mean
to you? Yeah, well, their quarterback wasn’t a direct quarterback. He was blocking passes.
He hung in there. And so, our guy was sort of a door threat. So, we got two different styles of
quarterbacks.

But they made the plays. I mean, it was more consistent in the run game. They made plays in
the passing game.

And we’re not going to make any excuses for things that we didn’t do well. Playing football, you
got to execute on all levels. And you got to find ways to do it right.

And there’s just no in-between. Or things are going to get out of control and you’re going to get
beat. So, we’re not in the business of losing.

We’re in the business of winning. And that’s just what it’s going to be moving forward. Two
more questions.

It seemed like you and Greg had a nice exchange at that postgame handshake. Just what did
you guys say? What did he say to you? Oh, yeah, I love Greg. Got a lot of respect for him, the
way he coaches, philosophy.

And so, you know, coaches are always offering advice, offering help behind closed doors. And
he’s just another guy that I can reach out to if I ever need to. But, you know, in the situation
that I’m in, it’s for me to learn from my mistakes.

Learn ways to get better. Find ways to get better. Find ways to win football games.
And get tougher and get stronger as the season goes on. And that’s what football is all about.

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