Bill Belichick has survived a full season in Chapel Hill. Two of his key assistants have not.

Via Pete Thamel of ESPN.com, Belichick has fired offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer.

Kitchens, the head coach of the Browns in 2019 and the interim Tar Heels coach in 2024, stayed on after Belichick was hired last year. Belichick brought Priefer to UNC after two decades in the NFL, and two years out of football.

Priefer was a member of Kitchens’s staff in Cleveland.

Belichick will now be hiring two new coordinators as he prepares for his second second at UNC. If it doesn’t go much better than his first season, there may not be a third.

And coaching only goes so far. At the college level, it’s about the quality of the players. For 2025, the Ta

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