North Carolina has added yet someone else from the University of Washington football program, as Armond Hawkins is joining Bill Belichick’s staff as a defensive backs coach, a source has confirmed to Tar Heel Illustrated.

In addition, Hawkins has a reputation as one of the better up-and-coming recruiters in the country, as he also served as Assistant Director of Recruiting with the Huskies.

Hawkins comes to Chapel Hill with plenty of familiarity of whom he will see in the Kenan Football Center, as defensive coordinator Steve Belichick held the same role at UW, plus two defensive Huskies, linebacker Khmori House and safety Peyton Waters, transferred in. So did former Washington receiver Jason Robinson.

Hawkins was part of a defensive staff that saw the Huskies improved from No. 99 overall in 2023, the season they played for the national championship, to No. 26 this past fall.

Before spending last season at Washington, Hawkins was at Arizona in 2023, Colorado in 2022 joining the program at the start of spring practice, and he was director of high school relations at USC from 2020-2022.

He played football at Idaho appearing in 44 games and starting 18 times for the Vandals. The program was at the FBS level at the time. He graduated in 2017. Hawkins attended Rancho Cucamonga (CA) High School where he was a 3-star prospect in the class of 2013.

From his bio on the Arizona football official site: “He graduated from the University of Idaho in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Science. He was a four-year letterman for the Vandals at defensive back, appearing in 44 games (18 starts), with 129 career tackles (eight for losses), with two interceptions, nine passes broken up, five fumble recoveries and three forced fumbles.”