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Veteran SEC assistant coach Will Friend is finalizing a deal to join Bill Belicheck’s staff at North Carolina as offensive line coach, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Wednesday.

Friend, 48, is coming off a year as offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky, where the Hilltoppers finished 26th nationally in passing yards per game (264.6).

Friend has worked as the offensive line coach at Mississippi State (2023), Auburn (2021-22), Tennessee (2018-20) and Georgia (2011-14), which included record-setting numbers for the Bulldogs’ offense in 2012 and 2013.

He also had a three-year stint as the offensive coordinator/offensive line coach at Colorado State, culminating in a 2017 season where he led an offense ranked No. 11 nationally and first in total offense in the Mountain West (492.5 yards per game).

Friend is “an experienced recruiter in the southern footprint,” according to Thamel.

The Tar Heels also are expected to sign a deal with longtime NFL special teams coordinator Mike Priefer, according to Thamel.

Priefer, 58, was a head specials team coach in the NFL starting in 2006 and most recently called the shots for the Cleveland Browns from 2019-22.

Priefer’s history as a graduate and former graduate assistant at Navy (1994-96) may have appealed to Belichick, whose father was famously a coach and scout at Navy for 33 years.

–Field Level Media