| | By Bill Doherty
Special to ESPN.com
The magic carpet ride that Virginia Tech redshirt freshman quarterback Michael Vick took his team on last season was unforgettable. Unless you're Vick, that is.
"I took last season and threw it out the door," Vick said. "That's done. Every day I think about what I need to do to get better. That's all I'm thinking about right now, ways that I can become a better football player."
Better? Already the 2000 Heisman Trophy favorite, it's hard to imagine Vick improving on last year's remarkable season when he led the Hokies to an 11-1 record and a berth in the national championship game. Vick orchestrated the nation's highest scoring offense (41.4 ppg), set a freshman record and led the nation in passing efficiency (180.4), and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting.
|  | | Michael Vick finished third in the Heisman voting last season. |
"He's a defensive player's nightmare," said Temple linebacker LeVar Talley. "He's very athletic, very talented. He's the best player in college football today."
Still, Vick isn't satisfied. To reach his stated goal of improving, the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Vick absolutely attacked the Hokies' winter conditioning regimen, adding 20 pounds to his bench press (up to 340) and setting a team quarterback record with a 515-pound squat. Vick was also clocked in the 40 at a blistering 4.25 seconds. To better utilize Vick's powerful left arm and happy feet, Tech's offensive coaches spent spring ball incorporating a quarterback bootleg package that they learned after visiting the Indianapolis Colts staff over the winter.
"The sophomore jinx will never be an issue for him," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "He'll be even better this fall than he was last fall. All the hype and Heisman talk won't faze Michael. He's a cool customer."
Beamer has instructed Tech's sports information department to take a low-key approach in promoting Vick for the Heisman.
"You can do all these different things," Beamer said, "but what you do on the field is what really counts. So I've told Michael, 'Don't worry about the Heisman. Just play well on Saturday and all that other stuff will take care of itself.' "
The first part of Tech's simple plan to make Vick the first sophomore winner in the 66 years of the award has been up and running since July 27. The school's sports information staff worked most of the summer coming up with a special Vick Internet site that can be accessed through hokiesportsinfo.com/vick. Within the first 4½ days the site was up and running, it took 856,031 hits.
Finally, someone figured out how to get a hit on Vick.
"It (the Heisman talk) kind of excites me, motivates me, because I know everybody will be coming after me," Vick said.
Catching him will be another story, though.
Bill Doherty covers Big East football for ESPN.com.
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 Michael Vick hits Andre Davis with the deep bomb for the score.
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Michael Vick keeps the option and scampers 46 yards.
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Michael Vick is confident that he will put up huge numbers this season.
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