Michael Vick was back in Blacksburg, Va., a week or so ago, digging up some game tape of his best three performances to show NFL scouts. That's where you'll find Vick next: at the NFL Draft on April 21, most likely holding a San Diego Chargers jersey, shaking hands with commissioner Paul Tagliabue, saying cheese for about 60 million reasons (not including endorsement deals).

I'm down here at Virginia Tech for some offseason reconaissance, and I can faithfully report that nobody seems too upset about Vick's decision to ditch the Hokies after just 21 1/2 games. There is no black crepe draped around Lane Stadium. Winter conditioning drills weren't canceled. The Hokies still plan to open their season against Division I-A newcomer Connecticut next September.

Tech coaches, players and athletic department officials are putting on a post-Vick happy face because they don't have any other choice. In a perfect world, Vick would have stayed put for his junior season. That's what coach Frank Beamer thought he should do, and it's what he needed to do. Vick only completed 54 percent of his attempts during this past regular season, and his touchdown passes only outnumbered his interceptions by two. Truth is, he was still a work in progress.

But no NCAA-approved insurance policy or last-ditch presentation by Beamer and his staff was going to convince Vick to spend another season sandwiched between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains. He has a chance to go No. 1 overall and set his family up for 10 lifetimes -- a no-brainer, if there ever was one. So what if he isn't polished? He can't be any worse than Ryan Leaf, who has about as much chance of succeeding in San Diego as Eminem has of playing a gig with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

"I always thought he was going to be here another year," says Beamer, sitting behind a desk in an office so big you could run Tech's skeleton drills in it. "But once he made that decision, well, I'm a Michael Vick fan. I've never been around a guy as talented as him. He's got some Michael Jordan qualities, some Tiger Woods qualities."

Beamer cried at Vick's going-away press conference in Newport News. Could you blame him? But he still has 15 returning starters from a team that finished the season 11-1. And without prompting, he'll happily show you a handful of architectural drawings of the new stadium expansion as if they were baby pictures. To his credit, Beamer is quick to credit Vick's stay at Tech as one of the reasons for the fundraising and capital-improvement windfall.

In short, Virginia Tech football isn't going away just because you can now get a good deal on No. 7 jerseys at the campus bookstore. Vick is history, but this is still a program with a foundation as deep as existentialism. The Hokies are going to run the same offense they've run for years, and do it with the likes of tailback Lee Suggs and wide receiver/return specialist Andre Davis. The defense is still going to knock the piping off opponents' jerseys. Beamer is still going to coach up the special teams. That should be good enough for a top-10 preseason ranking.

Of course, it would have been nice to have Vick. Then you're talking No. 1 and another crack at the Heisman Trophy. But this will do. It will do just fine.

Gene Wojciechowski is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at gene.wojciechowski@espnmag.com.