Former Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens has joined the South Carolina Gamecocks staff in an off-the-field role as senior analyst, the school announced Wednesday.
Kitchens, who was most recently an assistant with the New York Giants for two seasons, returns to college football for the first time in 17 years.
He and South Carolina coach Shane Beamer connected as members of the Mississippi State coaching staff in 2004.
"He's a fantastic coach with head coaching experience and coordinator experience," Beamer said of Kitchens in a statement. "He's a long-time NFL coach who will be a great asset and resource for our program and will help us in so many ways."
Kitchens has also worked with South Carolina offensive line coach Jody Wright, whom he hired to his Browns staff in 2019.
Kitchens lasted just one season as the Browns' head coach and was fired after posting a 6-10 record.
A starting quarterback from 1993 to 1997 at the University of Alabama, Kitchens began his coaching career in the college ranks, first as an assistant at Glenville State and then as a graduate assistant at LSU under then-coach Nick Saban.