North Carolina released Mack Brown a day after he announced he would be back in 2025

North Carolina head coach Mack Brown watches the team warm up before an NCAA college football game against Wake Forest on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

Mack Brown will ultimately no longer be in North Carolina for the 2025 season.

A day after Brown said he intended to return next season, UNC announced it would fire the longtime coach. Brown will continue to practice in the team’s season finale against NC State on Saturday.

“Mack Brown has won more games than any other football coach in UNC history, and we deeply appreciate everything he has done for Carolina football and our university,” North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. “Over the last six seasons” – his second season in Chapel Hill – he has earned our team six bowl berths, including an Orange Bowl, while also overseeing 18 NFL draft picks. He and his wife Sally have done an outstanding job supporting the Carolina community, including raising funds for UNC Children’s Hospital and hosting other popular events such as the Ladies Day Clinic. Both have provided great leadership for our program even through some incredibly difficult periods, including the tragic death of wide receiver Tylee Craft this season.

Brown, 73, was one of only three active coaches with a national championship, along with Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney. The 2024 season was the sixth year of his second stint with the Tar Heels and the team had taken a step backwards over the past two seasons.

North Carolina (6-5) has lost four straight games after a 3-0 start to the season. The Tar Heels gave up a shocking 70 points to James Madison in a 70-50 loss to start that series, and the fourth loss was a 41-34 loss to Georgia Tech after the Yellow Jackets scored their first touchdown after a 68-yard run Run for 16 more seconds.

The Tar Heels are 3-1 since that four-game losing streak, but lost 41-21 in Week 13 at Boston College. The Eagles ran 52 times for 228 yards and three scores in the win, while North Carolina mustered just 36 yards on 25 attempts thanks to seven sacks from QB Jacolby Criswell.

“While this was not the perfect time or way I imagined going out, it will never be the perfect time,” Brown said in a statement. “I spent 16 seasons at North Carolina and will always cherish the memories and relationships Sally and I built as head coaches. We have had the opportunity to coach and mentor some great young men and we will miss the opportunity to do so in the future. Going forward, my primary focus will be helping these players and coaches prepare for Saturday’s game against NC State and giving them the best chance to win. We want to send these seniors out the right way and I hope our fans come out on Saturday to do the same.”

Brown returned to coaching in 2019 after a stint at ESPN after leaving Texas following the 2013 season. After turning Tulane into a six-win team two seasons after going 1-10 in Brown’s first season as college head coach in 1985, he was hired at North Carolina in 1988.

The Tar Heels had a 2-20 record in his first two seasons before going on to win eight straight seasons. Brown left North Carolina for Texas after the program went 10-1 in 1997.

At Texas, Brown played in two national title games with the Longhorns. Texas won the Rose Bowl over USC at the end of the 2004 season thanks to Vince Young’s legendary run, then lost to Alabama in the BCS title game in Pasadena at the end of the 2009 season. Texas QB Colt McCoy left that game with a shoulder injury and it was Alabama’s first of six national titles under coach Nick Saban.

Texas won at least 10 games in nine consecutive seasons from 2001 to 2009. However, things went south after losing in the BCS title game. Texas went 5-7 the following season and never won 10 games again under Brown. When Texas achieved an eight-win season in 2013, Brown resigned in December, saying Texas had failed to meet the standards it had set during his tenure.

Brown’s firing is the first for a power conference coach this season as North Carolina now has a head start in the coaching search. Very few power conference coaches are expected to lose their jobs this offseason due to the lack of top candidates and the impending player revenue sharing agreement through the House of Representatives deal.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply