Mack Brown, North Carolina Tar Heels make staff change

North Carolina head football coach Mack Brown has announced that Tar Heels running backs coach Larry Porter will take over as the team’s special teams coordinator for the 2022 season. The position was previously held by Jovan Dewitt, who won’t return to UNC.

Porter, who served as North Carolina’s running backs coach and assistant special teams coordinator last season, will now be tasked with leading both units moving forward.

Prior to being hired by Brown, Porter spent three seasons at Auburn as the special teams coordinator, so he’s no stranger to that side of the football. Porter is in his second stint at North Carolina after also serving as the running backs coach from 2014-16.

North Carolina is coming off a 6-7 campaign in 2021.

North Carolina announces Gene Chizik hire among coaching moves

It’s official. Gene Chizik and Mack Brown are reuniting at North Carolina.

The Tar Heels announced Saturday that Chizik will be their assistant head coach for defense. In addition, Charlton Warren is coming on as co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach after two years at Indiana.

“We’re excited to welcome Gene, his wife Jonna, and their three children, Landry Grace, Kennedy Danielle and Cally, back to the Carolina football family,” Brown said in a press release. “Gene is one of college football’s great defensive minds and we’re excited that he’s returning to lead our unit. He’s spent the last five years in the media studying college football, so like me, he’s had a chance to look at a number of different schemes, while staying on top of how the game has evolved over the last few years.”

It’s a reunion for Brown and Chizik. They worked together at Texas from 2005-06 and won the 2005 national championship with the Longhorns.

Chizik would bring plenty of experience to the Tar Heels staff. He was a head coach at Iowa State from 2006-07 and at Auburn from 2009-12, where he took the Cam Newton-led Tigers to a national title in 2010.

It also marks a return to North Carolina for Chizik. He was the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator in 2015-16 before resigning in February 2017. Chizik was also reportedly a target for the USFL.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.