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Former Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens joined North Carolina’s staff as the run game coordinator and tight ends coach on Tuesday.

Kitchens has 24 years of coaching experience, 16 of which came in the NFL. He was at the helm in Cleveland in 2019, producing a 6-10 record.

He has also held various roles with the Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants in addition to serving as the Browns’ associate head coach, running backs coach and offensive coordinator prior to taking over as head coach.

“Freddie brings a wealth of experience as a head coach, a coordinator and a position coach,” Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown said in a statement. “We were really impressed with his resume and believe he will mesh nicely with the other members of the staff. Freddie has a great offensive mind and his experience will be invaluable both in the meeting rooms and on the field.

“We’re looking forward to getting (him) to Chapel Hill and can’t wait to see him work with our talented tight ends group.”

Kitchens will replace John Lilly, who joined the Carolina Panthers on Thursday as the team’s tight ends coach.

Kitchens, 48, most recently served as a senior football analyst at South Carolina during the 2022 season.

After one season (1999) as running backs coach and tight ends coach at Division II Glenville State, Kitchens was a graduate assistant for LSU in 2000 before spending three seasons as running backs coach at North Texas (2001-03). He then went to Mississippi State, where he was the tight ends coach in 2004 before reverting back to a running backs coach in 2005.

During his time as the tight ends coach with the Cardinals, Arizona went to Super Bowl XLIII, where it lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

–Field Level Media