Desmond “Des” Kitchings joined the Virginia program in January of 2022 as the team’s offensive coordinator and will also coach the tight ends. Kitchings comes to Virginia after serving as the running backs coach for the Atlanta Falcons during the 2021 season. Prior to that he spent one season as the running backs coach at South Carolina before an eight-year stint at NC State where he served a number or roles including co-offensive coordinator in 2019. Under Kitchings tutelage, NC State produced three-straight 1,000-yard rushers from 2016-18 for just the second time in school history. Kitchings was a standout receiver/return specialist at Furman. As a senior in 1999, he helped the Paladins to a Southern Conference title. He ranks among the school’s all-time leaders in receptions and returns, averaging 29.3 yards per kick return, the second-best mark in conference history, including a schoolrecord four kick returns for touchdowns. The youngest inductee into the Furman Athletics Hall of Fame, Kitchings was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2000 NFL Draft and spent four years on practice squads and rosters of NFL squads. Kitchings, who earned a bachelor’s degree in health and exercise science from Furman in 2000, and his wife, Heather, have three children, Aiden, Ava and Austen.