Following the season, UNC announced on Tuesday that head coach Mack Brown will no longer be coaching Tar Heels football. No decision has been made on Brown coaching the Tar Heels in a bowl game; he will coach the team in their season finale against NC State on Saturday.
“This was not the perfect time and way that I imagined going out, and no time will ever be the perfect time,” Brown said in a statement. He went on to say that he “will always cherish the memories and relationships” that were formed over 16 seasons in Chapel Hill.
According to USA Today, Brown, 73, has three years remaining on his contract and owes roughly $2.8 million. The decision to split up comes during Chapel Hill’s turbulent last season. After losing four straight games, including a humiliating 70-50 performance against James Madison in September, the Tar Heels bounced back to win three straight before falling to Boston College 41-21 on Saturday.
Tulane coach Jon Sumrall will get a “good look” throughout the hiring process, according to sources familiar with UNC’s hiring procedure who spoke to The Athletic.
Following the loss to James Madison, Brown said he told his team in an emotional postgame locker room, “If you all don’t feel like I’m the leader you need, then I’ll go do something else.” But he walked those comments back and later told SiriusXM radio on Nov. 20 that he was still committed to doing the job.
Brown’s second run with the Tar Heels resulted in a trip to the ACC championship game in 2022 and trips to bowl games in all six seasons. UNC never won the league championship with Drake Maye or Sam Howell, quarterbacks who were NFL Draft picks, but Brown leaves the program in better shape than when he got it. He inherited a program that had gone 2-9 and 3-9 in its previous two seasons under Larry Fedora.
In his first tenure in Chapel Hill, Brown went 1-10 in each of his first two seasons and then led the Tar Heels to four top-20 finishes in the AP poll, including an 11-1 season in his final year, in 1997. Brown’s 113 career wins, 10 bowl trips and four bowl victories are the most in school history. He’s quite simply the best football coach North Carolina ever had.
“Mack Brown has won more games than any football coach in UNC history, and we deeply appreciate all that he has done for Carolina Football and our University,” UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement.
