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Bill Belichick Hiring Former NFL Coach To His Staff At North Carolina

Originally posted on The Spun | By Matt Hladik | Last updated Dec 12, 2024 2:39 PM ET

As surprising as it may seem to many, Bill Belichick is the new head coach of the University of North Carolina.

Belichick was officially introduced in Chapel Hill Thursday afternoon. The 72-year-old signed a five-year contract, with reports indicating his salary will be $10 million annually. Clearly, both sides feel strongly about this partnership going in.

Belichick has never coached at the collegiate level, but reportedly became more open to making the leap in recent months. His candidacy at UNC moved quickly, with the hire announced Wednesday evening.

At his introductory press conference this afternoon, Belichick revealed that he's already made his first coaching hire. Freddie Kitchens, UNC's current interim head coach, tight ends coach and run game coordinator, will have a position on Belichick's staff.

Kitchens has been running the program on an interim basis after Mack Brown was let go following the end of the regular season. He's in his second season in Chapel Hill after one year at the University of South Carolina and 15 seasons at the NFL level.

CLEVELAND, OHIO - AUGUST 22: Senior offensive assistant Freddie Kitchens of the New York Giants, and former Cleveland Browns head coach, watches warmups prior to the game against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on August 22, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Kitchens was the Cleveland Browns' offensive coordinator in 2018 and head coach in 2019, going 6-10 in his lone season. While he's never worked for Belichick before, he did spend the 2020 and 2021 campaigns with the New York Giants under Joe Judge, a longtime Belichick protege.

A former quarterback at the University of Alabama from 1993-97, Kitchens got his coaching career started at Glenville State in 1999.

From there, he moved on to LSU, North Texas and Mississippi State before making the jump to the NFL as the tight ends coach of the Dallas Cowboys in 2006.

Kitchens was an assistant with the Arizona Cardinals from 2007-17, serving as tight ends coach, quarterbacks coach running backs coach. After that, he moved on to Cleveland, where he was the associate head coach and running backs coach in addition to being the offensive coordinator.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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