North Carolina has hired longtime college assistant coach Will Friend as its offensive line coach, a source has confirmed to Tar Heel Illustrated.

Friend spent this past season as offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky where the Hilltoppers had the No. 82 overall offense in the nation. They were No. 117 in rushing, No. 26 in passing offense, and 92nd in scoring.

Prior to being at WKU, he was at three different SEC schools as the offensive line coach: Tennessee from 2018-20, Auburn 2021-22, and Mississippi State in 2023.

Friend was the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at Colorado State from 2015-17 and the o-line coach at Georgia from 2011-14. He also coached out of college as a GA at Georgia then went on to Gardner-Webb and UAB.

Colorado State’s offense ranked No. 11 in the nation in 2017. He has coached nine offensive linemen selected un the NFL Draft.

Friend started at offensive guard at Alabama for four seasons and was twice named to the All-SEC team.