North Carolina coach Mack Brown watches as Noah Burnette misses a 27-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter against N.C. State on Friday, November 25, 2022 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.
rwillett@newsobserver.com
North Carolina coach Mack Brown announced the hiring of Randy Clements as the team’s new offensive line coach on Wednesday. Clements replaces Jack Bicknell Jr., who left along with former UNC offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Phil Longo for the same position at Wisconsin.
Clements will be the third offensive line coach since Brown returned to Chapel Hill in 2019. Stacy Searles served three seasons before leaving for Georgia, which paved the way for Bicknell’s lone season with the Tar Heels.
Clements has spent the past two seasons at North Texas and had stints at Baylor, Florida State and Ole Miss during his 20 years of collegiate coaching.
“Randy is a tough, hard-nosed offensive line coach that has a tremendous amount of experience working in systems similar to our offense,” Brown said in a statement. “He’s helped produce explosive offenses everywhere he’s been, while showing a knack for protecting the quarterback and limiting negative plays… The teams he’s been a part of have consistently run the ball effectively, and everyone we talked to thought very highly of him as a coach and leader of young men.”
Now Brown can turn his attention to replacing Longo, who was the offensive coordinator for all four seasons of his second tenure in Chapel Hill.
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 3:02 PM.
C.L. Brown covers the University of North Carolina for The News & Observer. Brown brings more than two decades of reporting experience including stints as the beat writer on Indiana University and the University of Louisville. After a long stay at the Louisville Courier-Journal, where he earned an APSE award, he’s had stops at ESPN.com, The Athletic and even tried his hand at running his own website, clbrownhoops.com.