University of North Carolina head football coach Larry Fedora announced the hiring of eight assistant coaches Tuesday, including six who assisted him at Southern Miss., one who was a former defensive coordinator in the Atlantic Coast Conference and another who is returning for a second coaching stop in Chapel Hill.
Unfortunately, he is not retaining Ken Browning who has been a coach at UNC for 18 years. He is well known and respected by high school coaches and has been a solidifying force through five coaching changes, which helps with recruiting in North Carolina. Prior to joining the Heels, Browning was the head coach and athletic director at Northern Durham High School for 18 years. He posted a 178-35 record and won the 1993 4-A state title and Shrine Bowl. Over his last three years, Northern built a 43-2 record and he was named the North Carolina Coach of the Year by the Associated Press in 1992 and 1993. He became only the third coach to win both the state title and Shrine Bowl in the same year. The instinct is to get rid of all vestiges of the previous Carolina regime but it would have behooved Fedora to keep that positive continuity with North Carolina high schools.
Only one UNC coach remains as Fedora announced he will retain strength and conditioning coach Tom Myslinski, who completed just his first year in Chapel Hill.
The six assistants Fedora brings from Southern Miss are defensive coordinator Dan Disch, defensive assistant and special teams coordinator David Duggan, defensive line coach Deke Adams, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Blake Anderson, tight ends coach Walt Bell and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic.
In 2011, Southern Miss had arguably its best season in school history, winning a school-record 12 games, including the Conference USA championship over previously unbeaten Houston, and the Hawaii Bowl over Nevada. The Golden Eagles averaged a school record 461.4 yards per game (6,459 total yards), which ranked 16th in the country. USM was one of just 11 FBS schools to average 200 yards per game both passing and rushing.
Defensively, Southern Miss led Conference USA and ranked seventh in the nation in pass efficiency defense. The Golden Eagles were second in CUSA in total defense, scoring defense and rushing defense. Southern Miss set an NCAA record with 11 interception returns for touchdowns.
Gunter Brewer, who coached five years at Carolina from 2000-2004 and was most recently the offensive coordinator at Mississippi for two seasons, returns to Chapel Hill to coachwide receivers and serve as UNC’s passing game coordinator. Brewer has coached several outstanding wide receivers in stops at Marshall, Oklahoma State, UNC and Mississippi, including three Biletnikoff Award finalists.
Vic Koenning will serve as Carolina’s associate head coach for defense. He recently led Illinois to a 20-14 win over UCLA in the Kraft FightHunger Bowl as the interim head coach. Koenning is a 24-year college coaching veteran who served three years as Clemson’s defensive coordinator from 2005-08. Each of his four Tiger defenses finished in the top 25 in scoring, total, and pass efficiency defense. He also was head coach at Wyoming in the early 2000s.
Carolina has hired eight of its nine on-field assistant coaches. Fedora plans to hire a running backs coach in the near future. Former UNC player and coach Randy Jordan is the favorite for that position.
– News release and added commentary