Bill Belichick makes the coaching change UNC football fans were begging for

The news that most UNC football fans have waited for is official:

Freddie Kitchens will not return as the UNC football program's offensive coordinator for the 2026 season.

Inside Carolina broke the news on Friday morning, a notification that seemed to be only a matter of time before it was sent out.

Kitchens' time at UNC

Kitchens joined the UNC football program's staff under Mack Brown following the conclusion of the 2022 season. After spending a season at South Carolina, Kitchens became the tight ends coach in Chapel Hill, serving in that role for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

When Mack Brown was relieved of his duties as the head coach of the program, Kitchens was called upon to serve as the interim head coach for the team's bowl game. When Bill Belichick arrived, the new regime elected to keep Kitchens, promoting him to the offensive coordinator role.

UNC's offense stunk under Kitchens' watch

North Carolina's offense was one of the nation's worst this past season. The Tar Heels finished ranked No. 131 in total offense, No. 121 in scoring offense, No. 119 in red zone offense (mind you, this is among the 136 FBS teams who are included in the rankings).

To add to it, North Carolina only scored 25 offensive touchdowns. Only seven other programs scored less touchdowns than the UNC football program did.

Being held to under 20 points on seven separate occasions isn't going to cut it, as the offensive offense display put out signaled an immediate need for a change.

While it wasn't all Kitchens' fault...

The Tar Heels for sure lacked the talent on both sides of the ball. However, a good offensive coordinator can cater to his team's strengths and weaknesses, something Kitchens failed to do throughout the entire season.

I don't know about you, but I definitely wanted to pull my hair out every time the staff drew up a play that had Gio Lopez rolling out of the pocket to his non-throwing side.

There's plenty of blame to go around, and Kitchens was one of the scapegoats for that. Let's face it: if you fail to score points, someone is going to get blamed, and Kitchens proves that Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels are looking for a significant upgrade this season.

While keeping Kitchens as the lone holdover from Mack Brown's staff was a solid thing to do, thrusting him into the offensive coordinator role was one of the worst decisions the new regime made last offseason.