Football coach Robert Prunty, Hampton University ‘mutually agreed to part ways.’ AD admits timing is ‘odd.’
HAMPTON — Former Hampton University football coach Robert Prunty said he and the school “mutually agreed to part ways” in a statement released to The Virginian-Pilot via his agent Wednesday morning.
And at a press conference later Wednesday with interim head coach Trent Boykin, HU athletic director Anthony Henderson concurred, admitting that the timing of the leadership change announced last week was “odd.”
The statement and press conference came just over a week after Henderson announced Prunty was no longer with the school or the program.
“I want to thank Hampton University, President Emeritus Dr. William R. Harvey and former Director of Athletics Eugene Marshall for giving me the opportunity to fulfill my life-long dream of being a collegiate head football coach,” Prunty said in the statement. “I also want to thank the players that I’ve had the opportunity to coach at Hampton as well as all of the people that make Hampton special — the faculty and staff, campus police, custodial staff and maintenance staff. I look forward to the next chapter of my coaching career.”
Before Wednesday, Prunty and Henderson had not commented publicly on the decision.
During the press conference, Henderson echoed the verbiage of Prunty’s statement, saying it was a “mutual parting of ways.”
Prior to the press conference, a Hampton Athletics spokesperson said only “certain things” can be said regarding personnel decisions. Henderson followed that tune and did not discuss the reasons Prunty and HU parted ways.
According theanalyst.com, a site that tracks college coaching changes, Harvard (Feb. 9) and Florida A&M (Jan. 27) were the last schools to name a new head coach for the 2024 season before HU’s decision.
“We’ve gone through spring ball; I will admit it is unusual timing,” Henderson said. “I think it’s something out of our control. Like I said, I can’t get into details, but it was unusual timing for us as well. I think the biggest thing that helped was actually having Trent on staff. It wasn’t something where I had to make a decision that we’re gonna go into a national search like right now because, as you know, it’s not ideal. We have somebody on staff that we felt could keep the trains running. So the timing is not ideal, but fortunately, we’re in the situation we’re in where we could bring Trent on as the interim and keep things going.”
Henderson said it took “about a day” to decide how to go about hiring an interim. Ultimately, Henderson said with the national coaching cycle over, it made more sense to go with an interim and Boykin was the obvious choice.
“You always kind of just think about it, if you have to make that decision, who on staff could take over,” Henderson said. “Having a relationship with Trent, I’ve known Trent for heck, almost 10 years now. … I’ve worked with him, know the type of character he has and the type of football coach he is. So it wasn’t hard, it wasn’t a hard decision.”
Boykin came to Hampton in 2020 after serving as the running game coordinator at Akron from 2012-18. He has 28 years of college coaching experience, including stints with Boston College and Ball State. He was a head coach at Lane from 2008-2009, and Henderson said he was a candidate for a head coaching job elsewhere this offseason.
“I really appreciate the opportunity that they saw in me to be able to take this program over,” Boykin said. “I’m excited, I’ve been here with Coach over the last four and a half years, so I really feel like I know the community, I know the program and I know this university. I’m just excited and our staff is excited to kind of just move forward from where we’re at. We had a good thing starting to go and know we’re gonna take it to another level. That’s my job and that’s our staff’s job to really educate these young men and really get them involved in all aspects of this university and and really get them ready to play.”
Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com
