HAMPTON, VA (WTKR)- Trent Boykin assumed he'd be interviewing for the Hampton head football coaching job with his performance through the end of the year. The Pirates decided they had enough of a sample size.
Director of Athletics Anthony Henderson has removed the interim tag from Boykin's title, making him Hampton's permanent head coach.
"It is a dream come true," Boykin said Wednesday. "As I got into this, I felt like I wanted to be a head coach at an HBCU program and kind of give back to programs like this and then to be able to be a program like this with the resources that we have, the excellence in education that we have, the area that we're in, this is probably one of the best programs."
"Being at practice, being around the team, seeing the structure he has for the program, the meetings and how its run, having that background and seeing how it's been successful at other places, you kind of just know what it looks like," added Henderson. "The guys have responded to him."
Under Boykin's leadership, the Pirates are out to a 3-3 start and come out of a bye week to face North Carolina A&T in Greensboro Saturday. The head coach has been focusing on each minute of the season and did not expect to hear anything until the campaign's conclusion, so the news came as a bit of a shock to him.
"I can say that I was really shocked about it," he said. "It never crossed my mind. I knew that I'm going to be interviewing for this job until December 31 and we're going to see what happens at that time, so to happen now, it's a surprise, but very humbled about it."
Upon hearing the news, Boykins said he made three phone calls, ringing his mother, brother and son. He called his two daughters next, making sure his tight circle was filled in before anybody else. In the midst of his first Division I head coaching season, however, he hasn't taken time to relish in the moment with plenty of work still to be done, choosing to keep the same mindset.
"I'm still treating it as an interview until December 31," he noted. "We've got six games, take one game at a time and that's what we're going to do."
"He's kind of auditioning while he's on the job, so it's not one of those things where you have to identify a candidate and then do your research," Henderson said. "All the research was here. Given the fact that we already have history, I know him as a person, I know his work ethic and then seeing him actually put that in place here at Hampton, it made the decision a little bit easier."
Henderson and Boykin worked together at Akron.
This is Boykin's first Division I head coaching job, but he brings an array of coaching experience with him. He was the running back's coordinator at Akron from 2012-2018 before joining the Hampton staff in 2020 as an assistant. Boykin has also had stops at Boston College, Ball State and his alma mater, Youngstown State, during his coaching career.
The Pirates have picked up wins over Virginia Union, Norfolk State and Howard so far this year. They'll kick off against North Carolina A&T Saturday at 1:00.
