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North Carolina will hire Freddie Kitchens as its new tight ends coach, a source in the UNC program has confirmed to THI.

Kitchens joins Mack Brown’s staff replacing John Lilly, who spent three years at UNC before taking the same position with the Carolina Panthers last week.

Kitchens was a senior football analyst at South Carolina last season, but has served in multiple capacities as an assistant coach at the college and NFL levels. He was a running backs coach for four seasons in college, including at Mississippi State, and also served as a tight ends coach.

In 16 years in the NFL, Kitchens was a tight ends coach, quarterbacks coach, running backs coach, associate head coach, offensive coordinator, and was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2019. They went 6-10 that season.

After being fired by the Browns, Kitchens joined the New York Giants as their tight ends coach. He was a senior offensive assistant to the Giants in 2021, but head coach Joe Judge was fired, so the staff was replaced, which is how Kitchens ended up at South Carolina last season.

Kitchens also worked in the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals organizations. He was in Arizona from 2007-2017.