From NFL stars to HBCU head coaches: Vick and Jackson on same path as they reunite in Philadelphia

“I said like, ‘What’s up?’ or something like that,” Jackson said with a laugh. “But you know, I’m looking at him like, Oh my God!"

Jackson grew from looking up to Vick to sharing a huddle with him in Philadelphia. The two retired NFL stars will be together again Thursday night when their teams — Vick at Norfolk State and Jackson at Delaware State, both out of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference — face each other at the home of the Super Bowl champion Eagles.

They are the kind of football programs and a conference that would never get such a major platform in the regular season — the game is on an ESPN channel — had they not become the latest HBCU's to dip into the celebrity coaching well.

Jackson and Vick's missions are clear — use their celebrity, their connections, their football smarts to resuscitate two long-suffering programs in the HBCU community much in the way Deion Sanders did at Jackson State on his way to Colorado.

Following Prime's career path

Jackson and Vick are trying to follow the path blazed with humor, hubris and a lot of wins much as Sanders as did as perhaps the most successful former NFL star who cut his teeth in coaching at the HBCU level.

Sanders began his coaching career at Jackson State, a historically Black college that plays in the NCAA’s second tier Championship Subdivison, and guided the Tigers to consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference titles before he made the jump ahead of the 2023 season to Power Four program Colorado.

He led Colorado to a 9-4 record last season and earned a spot in the Alamo Bowl.

“I don’t think my position would have been possible if he didn’t do what he did,” Jackson said. “Obviously struggled a little this year, but the past few years at Colorado, I think it’s helped guys like myself, Mike, Eddie George, a lot of guys that played, that had the celebrity status, now they’re coaching."

George, a Heisman Trophy winner and 2011 College Football Hall of Famer, coached HBCU program Tennessee State for four years before he was hired at Bowling Green.

Sanders has talked about the dearth of Black head coaches at the highest levels of college football and how's he trying to be a catalyst for change.

Vick and Jackson both credited Sanders as a mentor and lean on him for advice in how to use their name recognition as a springboard for being able to recruit top talent and serve as father figures in much the way former Eagles coach Andy Reid filled that role for them.

“We had coaches who bought into us,” Vick said. “As players, you think back to how you got to this point. You start thinking about all the people who bought into your life and all the mentorship that you had and the people that really cared. We've got an opportunity to reciprocate that.”

Jackson recently texted Sanders fishing for an invite the next time the Colorado coach and avid outdoorsman heads outdoors.

“I told him he was busy winning games,” Sanders said. “But I love it because they’re paving the way and opening the doors for so many other athletes that desire. You have no idea how many phone calls I get with former NFL players that want to coach."

Different directions with their new teams

For all the brash talk and national exposure a celebrity coach nets a program, it means nothing without wins.

The 45-year-old Vick, who starred in college at Virginia Tech and was a four-time Pro Bowler in 13 seasons for Atlanta, Philadelphia, the New York Jets and Pittsburgh, is off to a rocky start in his rookie season.

Norfolk State, with an enrollment of about 5,100 students, is 1-7 and has lost six straight games. Vick recently fired some assistant defensive coaches as he tries to revive a Spartans' program that has made only one playoff appearance since moving to FCS in 1997.

“We can't fail. We can only go up," Vick said.

Jackson has given his friend and fellow coach some space during his struggles, and they haven’t talked much headed into Thursday’s game.

Jackson has orchestrated a rapid turnaround at Delaware State, with an enrollment of about 6,500 students, that already included its first conference win since 2022. The Hornets are 5-3 and beat North Carolina Central 35-26 last week for their first win in Durham since 1977.

Delaware State athletic director Tony Tucker grabbed Jackson amidst the postgame euphoria and yelled, “who else could be the coach?”

Fueled by the early prosperity, Tucker wrote an open letter to school staff, fans and alumni this week that said, “The electric atmosphere you will create at the Linc will send a powerful signal to the nation that HBCU football is on the rise and that DSU is at the forefront of that movement.”

Jackson has pitched his NFL fame as a selling point and tried to rise the program out of a malaise that included a 1-11 record last season. He said he created a name, image, and likeness fund at the school that spreads cash to six or seven select players on the team. Jackson made the rounds in speaking engagements, sat in on fundraising meeting and stumped for donations and says the players who have a few extra bucks in their pockets know “they have to produce.”

Jackson noted “because of who I am, and I’m here” the university was able to secure $20 million from Delaware's bond bill — Power Four teams can spend three times as much in coaches' buyouts — to construct a 70,000-square-foot field house set to be built near the football stadium. It would include everything from a turf field to lounge spaces to new locker rooms.

Sanders told Jackson when he mulled the Delaware State job: “Don’t let the obstacles, the resources, that type of stuff, kind of stop you and your success.”

Jackson's sparse football offices — it included room for former NFL running back and current assistant Clinton Portis — needed a makeover when he was hired, with everything from a paint job to new floors to bigger TVs rushed to try and give the program some sense of professionalism headed into this season.

“It’s not the expectations of what I thought it’d be,” Jackson said. “But man, I feel like these times will make it all worth it. Whenever, if I go somewhere bigger, something like this will make me go, man, I started at the bottom and I went to the top.”

The former Eagles have grand plans at HBCU and beyond

Should Jackson grow the Hornets into an elite HBCU program, he could follow Sanders and start fielding offers to become a Power Four coach.

“Anybody in my position will want to eventually be in a bigger school,” Jackson said. “To tell you the timeframe or when it would be, I don’t know. But I’m going to be prepared to do whatever it is, whether it’s here, wherever else, I’m always going to be the best I can.”

When Jackson played for the Eagles, he looked cockeyed at coaches who watched game film as lunch bled into night and into the next morning, and said, no way. It wasn't a career path for him.

After his last season in 2022, and more than 11,000 career yards receiving, Jackson enjoyed retirement. He’d wake up in the early afternoon, dabbled in real estate, volunteered with the occasional nonprofit organization but mostly had “nothing consistent” in life.

The itch to do more eventually got to Jackson and he accepted a job as offensive coordinator at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.

Before accepting the Norfolk State job, Vick also spoke to Sacramento State about its open head coaching position and wanted to hire Jackson on his staff. Vick also wanted to bring Jackson to Virginia, and that job seemed on the table until Jackson was recruited to make the leap at Delaware State.

Vick said he always wanted to coach and spent most of the last few years coaching his daughter’s flag football team. Vick -- who earned a second chance in Philadelphia after his NFL career with Atlanta was derailed by his conviction in 2007 for his involvement in a dogfighting ring -- had run football camps since he was a rookie with the Falcons.

Jackson's been motivated by the greats — even if one of those greats is himself.

Jackson has an Eagles green No. 10 cleat on his office window ledge that reads “The best long threat wide receiver in history.” There’s another shoe that plays into his 1 of 1 nickname. Muhammed Ali is his computer wallpaper. The book “The Rise” that chronicles a young Kobe Bryant is on his desk.

This week's game is circled in red on a paper schedule taped to his office desk. Jackson has eyed this one since the schools announced they would ditch a campus game to bring one to Vick and Jackson's old stomping grounds.

Jackson now tries to find success at an underfunded football program on a 56-acre suburban campus across the street from a NASCAR track.

“It’s just the dynamics of HBC,” Jackson said. “Delaware State, they’ve never been in a position where they had to do certain things. I don’t know if they took sports as serious. That’s why they bring a guy like me in here, to bring us to the next level.”

AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Boulder, Colorado contributed to this story.

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