Football
- Title:
- Quarterbacks Coach
- Phone:
- 919-966-2575
Keith Heckendorf is in his fourth season as North Carolina’s quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator. He spent three years at UNC from 2011-13, and returned to Chapel Hill after a brief stint as the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State prior to the 2014 season.
Carolina’s passing game has been among the nation’s best under Heckendorf’s leadership. The Tar Heels have set the school record for passing yards in three of the last four seasons, passing for more than 3,500 yards each year. In 2016, Carolina was third in the ACC and 22nd in the nation averaging 293.2 passing yards per game. Despite having no quarterbacks with a career start at UNC entering 2017, Tar Heel quarterbacks threw for more than 2,700 yards and 21 touchdowns last season.
Heckendorf has tutored two of the most successful quarterbacks in school history in Marquise Williams and Mitch Trubisky. Williams led the Tar Heels to an 11-win season and the Coastal Division title in 2015, while setting more than 20 individual school records. A year later, Trubisky evolved into one of the nation’s top signal callers in his one year as the starter. He set several single-season school records, including total offense (4,056), passing yards (3,748) and passing touchdowns (30) while leading the Tar Heels to an 8-5 record and a berth in the Sun Bowl vs. Stanford. Williams and Trubisky are the only two players in UNC history with more than 4,000 yards of total offense in a single season.
Following his redshirt junior season, Trubisky entered the NFL Draft where he was selected by the Chicago Bears with the No. 2 overall pick. He became the first quarterback in UNC history selected in the first round of the NFL Draft and the ninth player taken in the top 10. At No. 2, Trubisky equaled the highest draft pick in Carolina history along with Julius Peppers (No. 2 in 2002) and Lawrence Taylor (No. 2 in 1981).
Carolina has won 22 games in the last three seasons, and the 19 wins in 2015 and 2016 were the most in Chapel Hill since the 1996 and 1997 seasons. In 2015, the Tar Heels had one of their best seasons in two decades, winning 11 games, capturing the ACC’s Coastal Division crown with a perfect 8-0 record, and finishing 15th in the country in the top 25 polls. Carolina made its first appearance in the ACC Championship Game, swept its in-state opponents, and set more than 60 team and individual offensive records. UNC led the nation in yards per play and was ninth in scoring offense, averaging a school-record 40.7 points per game.
Williams, who played two seasons under Heckendorf, capped a phenomenal career, setting career marks for total offense, total plays and rushing yards by a quarterback. He finished with 10,423 total yards of offense, which ranked fourth in ACC history. Williams was also responsible for a school-record 99 career touchdowns, including 61 passing, 35 rushing and three receiving.
In 2015, Williams posted 524 total yards of offense in a win over Duke to eclipse the single-game record he had set a year prior against Old Dominion. Williams rushed for 13 touchdowns in both 2014 and 2015, the most by quarterback in UNC history.
In his first stint at UNC, Heckendorf helped tutor quarterbacks Bryn Renner and Williams. Renner set several school records, including the single-season mark for touchdown passes with 28 in 2012. He finished his outstanding career second at Carolina in touchdowns and third in passing yards. Williams came off the bench in 2013 when Renner went down with a season-ending injury to lead the team to wins in six of its final seven games.
Prior to his first tenure at Carolina, Heckendorf spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Western Carolina. He also spent three seasons at Nebraska that included trips to the 2005 Alamo Bowl and 2007 Cotton Bowl.
Heckendorf had a standout career as a quarterback at St. Cloud State in St. Cloud, Minn., from 2000-03. He was a two-time finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy, which is given annually to the top player in NCAA Division II football, finishing second and third in the voting. He was also a consensus American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) All-America pick, and a two-time Academic All-America. He was the Division II recipient of the prestigious National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete Award. He earned his bachelor’s degree in elective studies from?St. Cloud State University in 2004, and he completed his master’s in education administration from the University of Nebraska in 2014.
A native of Mosinee, Wis., Heckendorf is married to the former Ms. Mia Mauer of Saint Paul, Minn. They have twin sons Ethan and Elliott.
