‘The Coach Vick Experience’: Michael Vick handed the QB battle wrong

The first episode of The Coach Vick Experience aired on BET tonight, and it’s certainly going to be an amazing experience. The show is beautifully shot, and the storytelling is masterful, peeling back the curtain on Michael Vick’s first year coaching at Norfolk State. While I expected to get answers to certain football questions about Norfolk State, the series was definitely a fun watch, and I hope there is enough support for the project to warrant a season two cameo next Winter.

But as someone who has covered Michael Vick’s first year at Norfolk State extensively, it’s hard not to be honest about some new information and previously missing context we lacked during the season regarding the Spartan program. The context around the QB battle between Otto Khuns and Israel Carter was definitely beneficial, though I find myself just as confused as last Fall at what was occurring.

But, we’ll speak about that more when we get there. Let’s recap the best portions of the premiere episode.

Michael Vick & Coach Vick are very different

The show does a great job illustrating the “Coach Vick Flip”. In his personal life, Vick is reserved and quiet, showing deep emotion regarding the distance from his family in Florida. He and his wife, Kijafa Vick, chose not to uproot their family, citing one key reason: maintaining stability for their daughter during her senior year of high school. Yet, once he hits the locker room or the sideline, he is far more vocal and energetic than expected.

That will certainly benefit him in the coaching profession. The best coaches in college football are passionate and charismatic, with some tough love sprinkled in. Vick certainly has the will and the mentality to be a coach, and that shone through in this debut episode.

This episode also displayed some growing pains that Vick certainly had to navigate throughout a tense first season. His handling of personnel, particularly in situations involving Otto Kuhns and BJ Blake, felt dismissive at times. Vick expressed a “not here to babysit” attitude, but in a head-coaching role, managing people and their personalities is the job. I think that’s the “rookie coach” part that was showing in Vick’s delivery and actions in those moments.

Everything isn’t going to be fun and joyous in leadership. And being a leader among your peers, as Vick was as an NFL quarterback, is different from being the leader of a whole program. The need for proper communication and the handling of these student-athletes must be paramount. I’m sure that Vick learned that throughout his journey but the first episode certainly showcased the ned for a steep learning curve.

A key part of the first episode was Vick’s strong support system, aptly highlighted by the surprise birthday party Kijafa threw for Michael days before the Towson game. We even saw a phone call with Deion Sanders, current Colorado coach who led Jackson State from 2020-2022. While the village he’s cultivated from his time as a celebrity and professional athlete will certainly benefit him, his success will ultimately depend on his ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics within his team.

Vick’s biggest misfire: Choosing Israel Carter over Otto Khuns

The core storyline of the first episode was the well-publicized quarterback battle between Otto Khuns and Israel Carter. And the battle between the two players was more intense than we could have thought. We learned in the episode that Carter and Vick share a connection dating back to when Carter was 13. It wasn’t random that Vick picked him up from the transfer portal from the University of South Florida as one of the first moves he made after becoming head coach at Norfolk State last January.

What was interesting at the time was that Otto Khuns elected to stay with Norfolk State instead of entering the transfer portal, even as Vick brought in two quarterbacks with the potential to be his QB1. But Khuns’s choosing to stay is actually good for the Spartans. In theory, Vick would get a chance to start his new era with a steady hand at quarterback, one of the best signal-callers in HBCU football.

But Vick chose his guy over a proven playmaker in Khuns and was defiant about it. While we didn’t see a lot of film of Khuns and Carter in practice, it did seem pretty clear that Khuns outplayed Carter and should have been the starter heading into the Towson game. The scene in which Vick and Khuns speak in his office during a closed-door meeting was jarring. Khuns bristled at being named the backup quarterback after he felt that he played better than Carter in practice and earned the spot. And his thoughts weren’t erroneous.

I get that Michael Vick is a legendary quarterback and was entering this job with extensive football experience, but it was clear that going with Carter was not the right decision. And we immediately saw that in the game against Towson. But the context that the series provides us is that the offensive struggles weren’t all Carter’s fault. The offense was struggling heading into the game, which wasn’t a great sign.

Personally, I believe that Norfolk State could have beaten Towson had Otto Khuns been QB1 from the onset. Norfolk State punted the ball three times before Khuns was given the reins of the offense midway through the second quarter. It took Khuns only two drives to lead the Spartans to the end zone, but the touchdown, as we saw in the series, was called back for offensive holding. Still, the game was in reach, as it was a 13-7 score heading into the fourth quarter before Towson scored a touchdown that ultimately iced the game.

If you followed Norfolk State football and Michael Vick’s journey with the team, you already know how the story ended. Khuns ultimately became QB1 ahead of the Rutgers game. He maintained the spot for the rest of the season until his unfortunate injury against North Carolina Central. But what’s interesting is how Vick got to Khuns being the starter, because the final scene in tonight’s episode—where Khuns has an emotional reaction on the sideline, and Vick accuses him of giving up on the team—seems like a very tense situation.

The resolution to the coaching battle, especially after the way that the game against Virginia State ended, certainly gives us even more of an incentive to check out the series. The Coach Vick Experience airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, on BET.

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