LOS ANGELES — Under normal circ*mstances, Armond Hawkins Sr. would be sitting in the Coliseum this coming Saturday, undoubtedly fighting back tears.
Because of the pandemic, Hawkins will have to watch on television as the football programs that employ his sons battle in USC’s season opener against Arizona State. Chris Hawkins, the Sun Devils’ defensive backs coach, will be on the Arizona State sideline; Armond Hawkins Jr., USC’s director of high school relations, will be on the Trojans’ sideline.
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“How many dads could sit up here and say they have two kids on a coaching staff at two of the most prominent teams in the Pac-12?” Armond Sr. said.
Armond Sr. owns Ground Zero, one of Southern California’s most prominent 7-on-7 programs, and he is a fixture in the Southland’s recruiting landscape. Chris was hired at Arizona State in late December 2019 to boost the Sun Devils’ recruiting presence in Southern California. Armond Jr. was hired by USC less than two months later in February 2020 to help improve the Trojans’ relationship with local high schools.
With neither program showing signs of backing down in an up-for-grabs Pac-12 South, it’s a matchup Armond Sr. will find himself in the middle of well past Saturday.
Armond Jr. (5) and Chris (4), back when they were on the same team. (Courtesy of Armond Hawkins Sr.)
This is where Armond Sr. always expected Chris to be. Growing up, Armond Jr., who is older than Chris by three months, was always the dominant one in sports. The most athletic, the fastest, “the go-to-guy on any team he was on,” as the father puts it.
Chris was the brainiac who had to work for everything he got, so the prevailing thought was that he would end up a coach. And he jumped into that profession’s ground floor quickly. After winning a Rose Bowl and a Pac-12 title with the Trojans as a player, Chris joined the USC staff last season as a graduate assistant, taking a hands-on role with the safeties.
In the midst of the coaching carousel, as the Trojans were prepping for the Holiday Bowl, rumors about Chris taking a full-time job began to circulate. Shortly after USC’s season ended, Arizona State announced the hire.
“I knew before he knew he was getting the job,” Armond Sr. said. “… We expected him to be a coach and we expected for it to happen fast. We just didn’t know it would be as a defensive backs coach in the Pac-12.”
Even as a graduate assistant in 2019, Chris began to develop a solid reputation as a recruiter. In that same recruiting cycle, Arizona State was clearly making California, and Southern California in particular, a point of emphasis. The Sun Devils signed five of the state’s top 25 prospects during the 2020 cycle. USC signed one. Moving forward, Arizona State wants to build off that success.
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“The (Arizona State) coaches reached out to me and, basically, they wanted to recruit California,” Armond Sr. said. “They wanted to know, from me, did they feel Chris could recruit California over the USC coaches and over the UCLA coaches? Do I think he could take kids and get them to Arizona versus staying at home? So I gave them the assurance that he could and it was history.”
Chris Hawkins is only 25. He played in the same secondary at USC as current Arizona State cornerback Jack Jones (a USC transfer), did. But now he has the opportunity to learn from former NFL head coaches, Herm Edwards and Marvin Lewis, and the likes of Antonio Pierce.
“He could sit there and learn, be corrected and can actually give the older guys advice too on what it takes to get these kids because people don’t understand,” Armond Sr. said. “Marvin and them, they’re NFL status. They get what’s given to them. Now they have to go out and get it. Chris has an advantage there where he could lead them and they could lead him in the football aspects.”
Last week, Chris was asked for his thoughts on returning to Los Angeles to face the only program he had known prior to arriving at Arizona State. Like a true defensive back, he swatted away the premise that Saturday’s game would have any additional meaning for him.
“To me, it’s just my first game as a full-time position coach,” Chris said. “Not looking too much into it because I feel if I’m too emotional, then my players are going to be emotional.”
Armond Sr., though, isn’t buying it.
“I’m just his dad but I don’t believe that one bit,” he said this past weekend. “That’s a bold-faced lie, just to be real with you. You don’t play and spend five years at a college that you grew up with and were raised to go to and then leave and all of sudden go to another college in the Pac-12 and then come back, and you don’t have a watershed moment. That’s bull.”
As much joy as Chris’ new opportunity brought Armond Sr., Armond Jr. getting hired to fill a role on USC’s recruiting staff might have been an even bigger moment for him.
“Because Armond’s path, even though he was a better athlete coming up and the star of his teams, was actually harder,” Armond Sr. said. “Because once he tore up his knee, he ended up settling and going to Idaho. Then dealing with the turmoil that goes on at Idaho, going from (FBS) to (FCS) and so and so. I didn’t think he would be able to overcome that so fast. But thanks to Clay (Helton), he was able to do that.”
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By USC’s standards, the 2020 recruiting class was embarrassing. The Trojans’ 2020 class finished No. 64 nationally and No. 12 in the Pac-12, per the 247Sports Composite. Their stronghold on Southern California had also disappeared as other Pac-12 programs, such as Oregon and Arizona State, started getting some of the region’s better prospects and national powers like Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State took elite prospects, too.
This offseason, USC’s recruiting slogan was “Take back the West.” The Trojans aren’t quite there yet — Oregon’s 2021 class ranks third nationally and atop the Pac-12 — but they have fared much better this recruiting cycle, with a class that ranks seventh nationally.
After last year’s underwhelming recruiting effort, USC made a concerted effort to upgrade its recruiting staff and modernize its approach. Armond Jr., who was brought in to help rebuild relationships on the local level, was part of that overhaul.
“At USC, you need personality,” Armond Sr. said. “You need to be able to fit in and be able to work with (director of player development) Gavin Morris, then be able to work with that coaching staff. His personality is young, vibrant, energy. He knows the game. Has been a safety as well, and a corner. He’s able to relate with kids and high school coaches as well.”
When USC called Armond Sr. about hiring his son, they had to make sure things were above-board from an NCAA perspective first because of the family’s affiliation with Ground Zero. If USC wanted to keep recruiting Ground Zero players such as Class of 2022 five-star cornerback Domani Jackson, it needed to make sure Armond Jr. did not qualify as an Individual Associated With a Prospect under NCAA rules before bringing him in.
That hurdle was cleared, which leaves the Hawkinses days away from what many think will be the game that decides the Pac-12 South this season, with Chris on one sideline and Armond Jr. on the other.
Armond Sr. said the pandemic kind of takes the thrill out of it since he can’t be there in person, but he’ll be watching from home, rooting for no one in particular.
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“I’m a USC fan but actually speaking … I don’t care who wins,” Armond Sr. said. “Last time I got Armond benched when USC played Idaho and I said USC would kill them. So I don’t care who wins. I win regardless. When they come out of that tunnel, I win.”
But the competition between the two programs is just beginning, with the new defensive backs coaches on both sides trading barbs more than six months out from the season.
How you gone take back something we OWN⁉️ #HermEra 🔱#ForksUp 🔱#21Kings 🔱 pic.twitter.com/ISZx0TnAow
— Chris Hawkins (@CHawk_4) February 27, 2020
USC is the WEST (but)
“A lion does not concern himself with the opinion of sheep”#TakeBackTheWest #FightOn ✌🏽
Goodnight stay blessed— Donte Williams (@CoachDee_USC) February 27, 2020
“It’s a tug of war to tell you the truth,” Armond Sr. said. “Being Ground Zero is Ground Zero, everyone looks to me. But I have to play a neutral role because at the end of the day I have to protect my parents and my kids. Everybody can’t go to USC and play football. Everybody can’t go to Arizona State and play football. So I just have to make sure my parents understand and pick and choose the right school with me being neutral for both of those programs.
“But don’t think that I don’t hear about it. I definitely hear about it.”
(Photo of Chris, left, and Armond Hawkins Jr. courtesy of Armond Hawkins Sr.)
Antonio Morales covers USC football for The Athletic. Previously, he spent three years at the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi, where he covered Ole Miss for two seasons and Jackson State for another. He also spent two years covering preps for the Orange County Register and Torrance Daily Breeze. Follow Antonio on Twitter @AntonioCMorales
