“You Can’t Coach…”: Michael Vick Recalls Nick Saban’s Blunt Advice That Stuck With Him
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Some advice hits differently when it comes from a legend. And when that legend is Nick Saban, a coach with 7 national championships to his name, you listen. Michael Vick knows that better than most, as the former NFL quarterback recently looked back on the advice from Saban that helped him navigate his new adventure as a head coach.
“Coach leaned over to me and was like, ‘Mike, listen. You can’t coach bad players to be good,” Michael Vick said on Brandon Graham Unlocked on October 15.
“He was like, ‘You can sit here and tell me all you want to tell me about what we did this.’ He said, ‘You can’t go coach bad players to be good.’ And not to say that I had bad players. Bad players can come in all different forms. You can be talented but undisciplined. Disciplined but not talented. You know, and so you got to weave through that.”
Michael Vick was enjoying his work at Fox Sports when the position of head coach of the Norfolk State Spartans fell in his lap. It was a dream come true for the former Virginia Tech QB, but it wasn’t an easy transition from running on the field to guiding the players from the sidelines.
Vick had less experience in this field, as he just had a little exposure that he got from the Kansas City Chiefs during their 2017 training camp. He had to manage responsibilities he had never managed before, like recruiting, scholarships, staff management, and most importantly, player development. The gap between being an NFL player for 13 years and having 0 experience in coaching showed up in the 2025 season.
In Vick’s debut season as HC, Norfolk State finished the 2025 season with a 1–11 record and failed to win any games in the MEAC. The only win for them came in September after they defeated Virginia State 34–31 in overtime. It was a big blow for Vick as his team lost 10 consecutive games to end the season. There was a lot for him to work on as he entered the 2026 season, and Saban’s advice did help him to navigate these losses into victories.
He has turned around his program this season, and the Spartans have improved to a 4–3 record. Their latest victory was a 62-0 blowout against VA Lynchburg. While Norfolk State still has a few games left in the season, the turnaround has been much better than last year, something even Vick believes he wasn’t fully ready for when he took the job.
“Fox was amazing,” Michael Vick said to Lawrencia Moten on October 11. “I got a call from Senator Aaron Rouse. And I was like, Bro, that’s like a dream come true call. Even though it’s a great call, even though I was ready. I felt like I wasn’t ready; I couldn’t digest it.”
Vick was just getting used to his second career as an analyst when he got the call from Rouse, who said that he was the top contender for the position of HC of the Spartans. It took him by surprise because, even though it was something he was looking forward to, before he turned 50, as per his calculations, he had 6 more years to figure that out, and he never really applied for this job.
“My wife was out of the country, and I spoke to her about it, and it’s like, when you get back, we’ll talk about it,” Michael Vick said to Moten. “It was this moment, man, like, wow, really? “
Vick also took the job because of his memories tied to Norfolk. As a kid, Vick grew up in Newport News, Virginia, roughly 30 minutes from Norfolk State. He had watched the university’s football team as a child, so returning there as a coach was a big opportunity for him. However, leaving a safe job, which he was planning to stay in for 2 more years, added an extra layer of tension. Vick spent around three weeks thinking about the offer before accepting it and finally said yes in December 2024.
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