Michael Vick’s Norfolk State team loses after stunning victory formation debacle

Michael Vick and Norfolk State lost in bizarre fashion on Saturday, falling 29-28 to North Carolina Central. The loss moved the Spartans down to 4-6 on the year. What was crazy? Well, Norfolk State led 28-23 with 1:34 to go in the game and NC Central had no timeouts remaining. On 2nd and five, the assumption was “victory formation” called by Vick. The second-year head coach and former quarterback said he had taken his headset off, signaling they were ready to wrap up a win. $39.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage However, they lined up in shotgun and quarterback Deljay Bailey ran with the football, fumbling in the process. NC Central recovered it, went on to score a go=ahead touchdown and held on for a 29-28 victory, even after Norfolk State got the ball back. “I don’t know what happened at the end of the game,” Vick said postgame. “I put my headset down. I called victory formation. All we had to do was take a knee, kneel the clock out. That’s just situational football. I don’t know what happened in regards to that. I looked up and we was running the ball, and then I seen the fumble. But my final instructions was victory formation. That’s when you kneel it out. And they had, I think, zero timeouts left and the game was over practically.” Take note that Vick said “practically,” meaning there would’ve been about 15 seconds left to play during a would-be Norfolk State punt. From there, it would’ve taken quite the effort for NC Central to win, barring disaster. What’s even crazier is the Spartans got the ball, starting the drive at their own 38. Penalties and 33 yards off two completed passes gave Norfolk State a 37-yard field goal to win the game. However, Marco Peery missed it and NC Central came away with the win. “Well, I put my headset down, and I took my headset off because all we had to do was just run it three times, or two times, or kneel it out,” Vick said. “That’s called victory. I don’t know what happened. A run play was called. I looked up, I seen us running the ball. I don’t know what happened. I really don’t. I don’t know what the play call was. I don’t know why we even ran that play. “People will look at that, and that’ll go on as a teaching tape for a lot of teams across the country for years to come. I hate it had to be us. But I called victory formation. Just letting everybody know that. I called victory.” Norfolk State is 0-3 in MEAC play this year and have lost three straight games. Vick and the Spartans will play Morgan State and Howard to conclude the year over the next two weeks. In nearly two seasons, Norfolk State is 5-17 under Vick following a 1-11 campaign in 2025.