UNC dismissed offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens after the conclusion of the 2025 season which featured an absolutely putrid offense that was one of the worst in the country. David posted last week
that names were starting to surface as potential replacements for Kitchens, such as Chip Kelly, Tommy Rees, Andy Kotelnicki, and Bobby Petrino. It sounds like we finally have an answer.
According to On3’s sources, Petrino has been offered the coordinator position and has accepted. Petrino was named interim head coach of Arkansas this season where the Razorbacks were fourth in the SEC. No one has questioned his ability to run an offense that puts up points, but that is far from the whole story when it comes to inviting the Petrino circus into your home.
There is an absolute mountain of baggage that comes with hiring Petrino, as David detailed in his post. Whether you care about that when it comes to having him call plays for the UNC offense in 2026 is up to you, but it makes it feel difficult to see this as any kind of stabilizing move for the program. There is just already so much baggage with how the football program is operating, the meddling that led to Belichick being the head coach, rumors about how players are treated, Belichick’s girlfriend’s visibility, the results we are getting relative to how much is being put in, etc etc etc, that landing on Petrino feels both fitting and like the potential for additional headaches are high.
Maybe it all goes swimmingly and all of this was much ado about nothing. Maybe Bill Belichick and Petrino can’t find a way to make it through a season without being at odds with each other and this turn into a brief marriage doomed from the start. Maybe Belichick walks away at the end of 2026 and we’re left with head coach Bobby Petrino. Who knows! What is clear is that if you were looking for real tangible hope that 2026 would be different from 2025, that is almost certainly not what you got here.
How do you feel about this move? Let us know in the comments below.
