Clemson Tigers Add Former NFL Coach Amid Coaching Carousel

Following the mass departures of Clemson staffers over the past month, head coach Dabo Swinney has decided to bring in longtime coach Freddie Kitchens, according to an On3 report made yesterday.

Kitchens will serve in an unpaid role as an offensive analyst after being fired as North Carolina's offensive coordinator by head coach Bill Belichick last month.

Kitchens has over three decades of experience across the professional and collegiate ranks, beginning with a five-year playing career at Alabama. During that span, Swinney also worked on the offensive staff of the Crimson Tide, holding roles as a graduate assistant, wide receivers coach and tight ends coach.

Coaching Career

Kitchens began his coaching career at the collegiate level, working as a running backs and tight ends coach at Glenville State — a Division II program — before joining LSU as a graduate assistant in 2000. He then spent three seasons at North Texas as the running backs coach, followed by two years back in the SEC at Mississippi State, where he coached tight ends in 2004 and running backs in 2005.

After gaining seven years of coaching experience in the NCAA, Kitchens made the jump to the NFL in 2006 — a level he'd stay at for the next 15 years.

He joined the Dallas Cowboys as the tight ends coach for just one year before beginning a lengthy 11-year tenure with the Arizona Cardinals. During his time with the team, Kitchens coached multiple offensive skill positions, including quarterbacks, tight ends and running backs.

The most defining stretch of Kitchen's career came with the Cleveland Browns. He joined the staff to begin the 2018 season, operating as the organization's associate head coach and running backs coach, and was later promoted to interim offensive coordinator for the final eight games of the season.

With Kitchens as the coordinator for the final eight weeks, the Browns saw late-season success, winning five of eight. This led to Kitchens being named head coach in 2019, but the tenure proved brief. In his first and only season at the position, he led Cleveland to a disappointing 6-10 finish amid high expectations, and Kitchens was dismissed following the season.

Since his brief stint as a head coach, Kitchens has held several advisory and support roles, including stops with the New York Giants as tight ends coach, senior offensive assistant, and interim offensive coordinator, before returning to the collegiate level to take a role as a senior analyst for South Carolina.

As mentioned earlier, Kitchens spent the past three seasons in Chapel Hill, serving as tight ends coach, run game coordinator, interim head coach, and offensive coordinator.