NC State co-offensive coordinator Des Kitchings will not return in 2020

Amid staff changes on the defensive side, NC State is also making a change at offensive coordinator. James Henderson of Inside Pack Sports reported Saturday night that co-offensive coordinator Des Kitchings will not be back in 2020.

Kitchings was given the play-calling duties along with George McDonald prior to the 2019 season. A lot of what happened this past year couldn’t be pinned on those guys, but at the same time they definitely had their issues in the new role, and it just made everything more difficult.

Kitchings was actually hired by Tom O’Brien late in his tenure and had been on staff since then—he was one of the better recruiters that State had. Which is why I’d hoped Dave Doeren could find a way to retain him even while removing him as a play-caller, maybe with some fancy/complicated new title.

But it’s only possible to walk back so much—maybe Doeren didn’t want to fire Kitchings, but Kitchings wasn’t willing to accept a demotion, and at this point in his career, I wouldn’t blame him for that.

It’s not clear yet what exactly this means for the offense moving forward, since I can’t imagine this was done simply to hand over the entire coordinator gig to George McDonald. We’ll see.