The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees has approved the contract of new assistant football coach Des Kitchings, who will fill out head coach Will Muschamp’s coaching staff.

Kitchings is on a one-year contract and he will make $300,000. His incentives are the same as the rest of the assistant football coaches.

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A native of Wagener, S.C., Kitchings began his coaching career in 2004 at Furman, where he played his collegiate football, then spent two years at Vanderbilt and one at the Air Force Academy before settling in at N.C. State for eight years.

Now, he’ll join the Gamecocks, a program that has vetted him multiple times in the past for a position on the coaching staff.

Kitchings, who was a standout wide receiver and return specialist for the Paladins, held various titles during his eight years at N.C. State. He was hired to coach running backs and tight ends in 2012, but focused solely on running backs the next season.

He also held the title of recruiting coordinator and co-offensive coordinator during his time with the Wolfpack, but was relieved of his coaching duties after the 2019 season when head coach Dave Doeren elected to bring in a new offensive coordinator.

The 2019 season was the first time in four years that a Kitchings-led running back room at N.C. State did not produce a 1,000-yard rusher. Freshman Zonovan Knight did have 745 yards and five touchdowns, which would have been the highest total for a Gamecock rusher since the 2014 season when Mike Davis totaled 982 yards.

Kitchings is also a standout recruiter. In fact, he beat out the Gamecocks last year for defensive end Savion Jackson, a Shrine Bowl performer who saw action for the Wolfpack in his first year on campus.

The job was left open for Kitchings when former offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon left the program to take a similar position at Oregon, a job that came open in early March when the Ducks’ former coach left for a job at Kentucky.

Kitchings will fill the role at running backs coach, a position that has heard a different voice each of the last three years. Bobby Bentley joined the program upon Muschamp’s arrival as running backs coach and served in that position for three seasons.

Bentley then moved to coach tight ends last year under new assistant Thomas Brown, who left the program this offseason to take an NFL job. Bentley moved back to running backs briefly, but will now shift back to coaching tight ends.