BOSTON – Bill Belichick was announced as the new head coach of the North Carolina football team earlier this month. But the head coach, who has won six Super Bowls, won’t be on the sidelines Saturday leading the Tar Heels in the Fenway Bowl game against UConn.

Freddie Kitchens, who was named UNC’s interim head coach on Dec. 1, will lead the Tar Heels in the annual bowl game.

Why shouldn’t Belichick, who became one of the highest-paid college coaches after signing a five-year, $50 million contract with the team, take over the game?

Kitchens coached the team at the end of the season after Mack Brown was fired, so it made sense to keep him on through the bowl game.

This usually happens when a college team moves when there is an interim coach. After North Carolina fired Mack Brown before the end of the season and the Tar Heels were knocked out by Boston College, Kitchens took over the remaining games on the schedule.

After finishing with a 6-6 record, the Tar Heels were invited to play in the bowl game against UConn, 8-4.

Kitchens, who will join Belichick’s staff, was in his second season as North Carolina’s running game coordinator and tight ends coach.

During Friday’s press conference, he said that he was in constant contact with Belichick and kept him updated on team developments.

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

It was also reported that Belichick’s tenure with the Tar Heels doesn’t officially begin until 2025, which was another reason for him to let someone else coach the game.

The former Patriots head coach, who led the team to six Super Bowl victories, will ultimately lead UNC through a new era in hopes of taking the program to new levels.

The Fenway Bowl has been played annually since 2021 in the traditional home of the Boston Red Sox. It’s a place Belichick is familiar with, having paraded the Lombardi Trophies in several opening games.

Hidden somewhere in the historic park, could Belichick be there?

“We don’t expect him to be at the game,” UNC assistant AD/football communications director Jeremy Sharpe told MassLive on Friday. “But everything is fluid.”

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