Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Part Ways With Two Coordinators

Sports Illustrated

It took a while, but on Friday, the Tar Heels finally made some changes to their coaching staff following a disappointing first season of the Bill Belichick era.

As first reported by Inside Carolina, the Tar Heels have parted ways with offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and special teams coordinator Mike Priefer.

Kitchens departs after one season as the team’s offensive coordinator, a spot he was elevated to by Belichick after spending two seasons as a tight ends coach for the program under Mack Brown. This season was a brutal one for the Tar Heel offense, as they averaged just 288.8 yards per game and 19.3 points per game, both of which ranked outside of the top 120 in the FBS this season. The team also ranked 109th nationally in passing yards per game (183.5), 124th in rushing yards per game (105.3) and 95th in third down conversion percentage (36.9%). Even more egregious was the play calling for most of the season that didn’t fit with who he had at quarterback, leading to the lack of success that we saw in all of those statistical categories.

Priefer will be leaving Chapel Hill after a solid, but unimpressive season for his unit. Kicker Rece Verhoff was the biggest success from the unit, hitting all 20 of his extra points and nailing 19 of his 23 field goal attempts on his way to All-ACC honorable mention honors. Punting was middle of the road with Tom Maginness, who averaged 42.6 yards per punt which ranked 71st nationally. The return units didn’t make any major mistakes, but they weren’t able to rip off any big returns either, finishing 104th in kick return average (18.3) and 77th in punt return average (8.1). Both coverage units ranked in the middle of the country in terms of yards allowed on returns, a perfect representation of where this side of the ball was all season long. The reason this move may have happened was because of the game against Wake Forest, where the special teams unit was one of the main reasons for the loss because of two blocked field goals.

The choice to move off of Kitchens seemed to be a simple one for this staff after how poorly things went this season and it feels good to know that side of the ball will get a fresh start. As for Priefer, it is a little bit shocking that he is gone, but we wanted some changes to this staff and they are giving us some so we can’t complain too much.