By Brian Murphy, WRAL

Former NFL coach Freddie Kitchens, who served as North Carolina’s run game coordinator and tight ends coach for the last two years, is the Tar Heels’ interim coach following the firing of Mack Brown, the school announced Sunday.

The program’s all-time leader in coaching wins and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Brown coached his final game Saturday — a 35-30 home loss to rival NC State. The 73-year-old Brown was fired Monday after six seasons in his second stint with the Tar Heels. He had three years remaining on his contract.

Kitchens, 50, was head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2019 and went 6-10. He was an assistant coach with Dallas, Arizona and the New York Giants in the NFL. Kitchens also coached in college early in his career. He was a senior analyst with South Carolina in 2022 before joining the UNC staff in 2023.

“Freddie Kitchens is an incredibly talented coach who is respected by our student-athletes and staff,” UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. “He is dedicated to doing all he can to help lead our program through this transition, and we appreciate his willingness to take on this role.”

The Tar Heels (6-6) are bowl eligible. Eighty-two teams qualified for 82 bowl spots. UNC players said after Saturday’s game that they wanted to play in a bowl game. The team’s bowl destination and opponent has not been determined. It is likely to be announced on Dec. 8.

“We want to play,” said defensive end Kaimon Rucker, who was fractured his fibula against NC State. “We got an opportunity to go to a bowl game, got to finish the season right especially after what happened (vs. NC State). We can’t go out just having this on our back.”

The transfer portal opens Dec. 9, though UNC players can enter earlier because of the change at head coach.

“The guys that are going to be here are going to be here, and they want to be a part of this,” said quarterback Jacolby Criswell. “We’re just going to go out there and win this ballgame. We’re going to win this ballgame for Coach Brown. He’s not going to be out there with us.”

Cunningham said at the time of Brown’s dismissal that he and Chancellor Lee Roberts would begin the coaching search.

“I’ll obviously play a role in the coaching search,” Roberts said Saturday night.

UNC Board of Trustees chairman John Preyer, who has been critical of the way Brown’s firing was handled, said he wants to see an open process for hiring the next permanent coach. He said he would like to the board to be involved in interviews.

“My hope is that we will have greater transparency about the hiring of a new coach than the lack of transparency on what happened to our Hall of Fame winning coach and how he was fired,” Preyer said Saturday night.

After the game, Brown said the program will be better equipped to compete for players with name, image and likeness (NIL) money moving forward because of revenue sharing between universities and players. Schools are expected to share about $20.5 million with athletes beginning next season. Football is expected to receive the majority of the money at most schools.

“We had about $4 million. He’s going to have at least $12 (million),” Brown said. “So it’ll be three, four times much more money for kids. That should really help them.”

Brown said changes to the game, including NIL and the transfer portal, are part of the reason “it’s a great time for me to get out. This isn’t the game I signed up for. It has changed so much.”

UNC is one of four Power 4 conference jobs open at the moment, along with Central Florida (Big 12), West Virginia (Big 12) and Purdue (Big Ten). Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, a UNC alum, said he is not a candidate for the position, according to NFL.com.

“I’m sure that’ll get a great coach,” Brown said.

Source: wralsportsfan.com