North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick is hiring veteran offensive coach Bobby Petrino as its offensive coordinator, according to multiple reports.
Petrino, 64, was the offensive coordinator and interim head coach at Arkansas in 2025. He has had a long career in college football and the NFL, including head coaching stints at Louisville (twice), Arkansas, Western Kentucky and Missouri State in college and with the Atlanta Falcons for 13 games in 2007.
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On3 first reported that Petrino had agreed to become UNC’s offensive coordinator. North Carolina fired offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens after a dismal 4-8 season in Belichick’s first year in Chapel Hill. ESPN also reported it.
Hiring an offensive coordinator was one of the top priorities for the program heading into 2026.
Petrino is famous for his prolific offenses at nearly all of his stops. In 2025, Arkansas was 18th in the nation in total offense (454.8 yards per game) and 25th in scoring offense (32.9 points per game). UNC ranked 129th nationally in total offense (288.8 yards per game) and 119th in scoring offense (19.2 points per game).
But he was fired from Arkansas in 2012 after admitting to having an affair with a former Arkansas volleyball player who he had hired to work with the football program. The affair came to light after Petrino and the woman were involved in a motorcycle crash.
Despite that incident, Petrino returned to Arkansas in 2024 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He’s also been the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, UNLV, Auburn, Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL), Louisville, Utah State, Nevada, Idaho and Carroll College in Montana, his alma mater, through a long coaching career that began in 1983.
