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Bill Belichick is reportedly hiring Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator for UNC football
UNC is shaking up its offensive identity after being one of college football's lowest scoring teams last year.
North Carolina has reached an agreement to bring on Bobby Petrino as it’s offensive coordinator, according to On3 Sports. On Monday morning, ESPN confirmed that the Tar Heels were working to hire Petrino.
Petrino will replace Freddie Kitchens, whom North Carolina fired during the offseason. Petrino will join Bill Belichick’s staff in Chapel Hill.
Belichick finished 4-8 in his first season as North Carolina head coach. The Tar Heels were not bowl eligible this season. They averaged 19.3 points per game, which was last in the ACC and 121st nationally.
Petrino joins North Carolina after a brief second-stint at Arkansas, the school that had fired him after his 2012 motorcycle incident. Petrino was head coach there from 2008-2011 and had returned as offensive coordinator in 2025. He took Arkansas from 116th among FBS schools in yards per play in 2023 to 10th in yards per play in 2025. UNC was in the bottom-10 nationally in yards per game last season at 288.8 per game.
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Petrino stepped in as interim head coach for the Razorbacks this season after Sam Pittman was fired. He went 0-7 during that time.
Petrino has a 137-78 record as a college head coach during his decades-long career. He also spent a season as head coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, during which he went 3-10.
Petrino landed several head coaching jobs after his motorcycle incident, including stops at Western Kentucky, Louisville, and Missouri State. Since 2023, however, he has been employed as an offensive coordinator with stops at UNLV, Texas A&M, and Arkansas.
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