Head coach Bill Belichick’s college experiment at the North Carolina football team is already in overhaul mode. After a lifeless 4-8 debut season and an offense that ranked near the bottom of the FBS, the Hall of Fame coach moved quickly to fire offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and special teams coordinator Mike Priefer, leaving only his son, Stephen Belichick, in place as defensive coordinator.
The next OC hire will effectively shape the first real vision of what a “Belichick offense” looks like in Chapel Hill.
According to On3, North Carolina has already begun lining up candidates to replace Kitchens, and the early list is anything but timid. Arkansas interim head coach Bobby Petrino is described as a name to watch after his Razorbacks offense averaged 454.8 yards and 32.9 points per game this season, good for fourth in the SEC, even if the late-season results in Fayetteville were rough.
Kevin Decker, Old Dominion’s offensive coordinator, is another option; his attack finished second in the Sun Belt in total offense at 460.8 yards and 32.7 points per game, and he helped turn quarterback Colton Joseph into the league’s Offensive Player of the Year before Joseph entered the portal.
The biggest headline name, though, is Chip Kelly. On3 notes that the former UCLA and Ohio State offensive boss, most recently with the Las Vegas Raiders, has already interviewed for the Georgia Tech OC opening and has a long-standing friendship with Belichick dating back to Kelly’s days at New Hampshire.
All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of a disastrous first year in Chapel Hill. After a 42-19 loss to NC State dropped UNC to 4-8 and out of the bowl picture, Belichick flatly admitted the obvious, saying the program has “a lot of work to do” as it moves into the offseason and begins recruiting and portal business in earnest.
Whoever takes the job will inherit a broken offense but also a massive opportunity: become the architect of Belichick’s rebound plan at the college level and, if it hits, the face of North Carolina’s next era on that side of the ball.
