John Lilly, who spent last season as the tight ends coach for the Cleveland Browns, will be North Carolina’s next tight ends coach, according to published reports as well as multiple sources close to the situation that have confirmed this to THI.

Lilly is replacing former tight ends coach Tim Brewster, who left last week for a similar post at Florida.

After lengthy stops at Florida State from 1998-2007 and then Georgia from 2008-2015, Lilly has had three different jobs: He was the Los Angeles Rams tight ends coach in 2016, did not coach in 2017, was the executive assistant to the head coach at Tennessee in 2018 and last season with the Browns.

Lilly is regarded as an excellent tight ends coach but his two decades of experience recruiting in Florida and Georgia are also important elements of this hire. He was the recruiting director for much of his time at FSU, which included four of the Seminoles’ classes being ranked among the top four in the nation between 2002 and 2007. In addition, the 2001 and 2005 classes were ranked No. 1.

Though he’s a native of West Virginia, Lilly has many ties to the state of North Carolina. He graduated from Guilford College, which is in Greensboro, where he played quarterback, and was an assistant coach at Northwest Guilford High School in Greensboro for four years before landing a spot on Bobby Bowden’s staff as a videographer in 1995.

Lilly does also have a connection to the current UNC staff, as he was on the Georgia staff for a couple of years with Tar Heels’ offensive line coach Stacy Searels.

An interesting playing note on Lilly, he was named the Golden Helmet Award as the ideal Guilford College player as a senior.

Note: UNC announced the hiring moments after THI published this report.