Bill Belichick will take it easy in the University of North Carolina’s first football game since being named coach. At least that’s what interim coach Freddie Kitchens said during a press conference for Saturday’s game against UConn in the Fenway Bowl.

“I talk to Coach (Belichick) every day, but not during the game and stuff like that,” Kitchens said Friday. “He understands that we have a job to do here.”

North Carolina (6-6) fired Mack Brown after a 35-30 loss to NC State at the end of the regular season and then signed Belichick to a five-year, $50 million contract. Belichick, who was fired by the Patriots in January after leading them to six Super Bowl titles, is scheduled to make his college coaching debut against Texas Christian on Aug. 30 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.

In the meantime, the Tar Heels are doing their best to quell Belichick banter. UNC players made their first public comments since the coaching change at the news conference.

“With Coach Belichick, there’s obviously going to be a lot of excitement,” second-year linebacker Amare Campbell said. “As a team we’re all focused on this game and winning this game, so it’s all kind of outside noise.

“It will definitely be a new era and we can take a lot from this game. This game will show some of the younger players and some of the players we have what they can do next year. But we are all focused on this game, that was the most important thing for us.”

Brown’s stock apparently fell despite leading the Tar Heels to six consecutive bowl appearances and being the only active coach in the College Football Hall of Fame. Brown also coached Patriots quarterback Drake Maye at UNC for three seasons.

“It’s going to be a new era, but I don’t think any of us would be here without Coach Brown,” said tight end John Copenhaver, a graduate student. “I know when he took this job his goal was to get Carolina back on the stage and I think he did that perfectly. And I feel like none of us would be here without him.

“Coach Kitchens says you can only control what you can control. If you attend meetings, you are also involved in meetings. If you’re in Boston, have a good time. You can’t really focus on what’s coming in a week or two, you have stuff to get done that day or week. There have been times with a head coach change where anything could go wrong. But just look at the person on your left and the person on your right – that’s what you have. If a player wants to go, he can go, but we have a job to do and that’s coming to the Fenway Bowl and that’s all we’re focused on.”

No Belichick, then, but the game features a duel between former NFL coaches over Kitchens, who led the Cleveland Browns to a 6-10 record in 2019, and UConn’s Jim Mora Jr. Kitchens is eager to adapt to the dimensions of the hockey rink at Fenway Park. It is required that both teams’ benches are on the same side of the field.

“We talked, and he was never involved, and we laughed a little bit,” Kitchens said of Mora. “For me it was never synonymous with hockey style, but I kind of like it. It’s kind of fitting – the Bruins are pretty big here.”

Mora, who became a Red Sox fan and lived in Wrentham while his father worked as a Patriots assistant, said: “As far as I know, Coach Belichick won’t be on the field, so that’s irrelevant to this team. “We can We can’t control the emotional component of our opponents, so we don’t try. We focus on what we can control and that is our preparations, the way we work, our attention to detail, our mindset.”

Mora seemed to have no trouble moving on to the college level at UCLA in 2012 and UConn in 2021 after managing the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks.

“Football is football on the field,” he said. “The off-field experiences between the NFL and college are very, very different. At this level it is much more personal. You’re dealing with a younger athlete who may need you a little differently in his life than a professional player. The opportunity to come to a bowl game, experience the events and the camaraderie is unlike anything you’ll ever experience at the NFL level.

“At this point in my career, at this point in my life, what I enjoy most is having time to spend time with these guys and our entire staff. It’s just different. The experience of being around student-athletes is what makes this so special.”

Frank Dell’Apa can be reached at [email protected].