Brown Fired by Tar Heels

The return of the Mack era is done.

Legendary coach Mack Brown will not return to the sidelines to lead the North Carolina Tar Heels for the 2025 season after all. A day after Brown told the media that he planned to return next season, UNC said they are firing the longtime coach. Brown will still coach in the team’s season finale against North Carolina State on Saturday.

“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,” North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. “Over the last six seasons — his second campaign in Chapel Hill — he has coached our team to six bowl berths, including an Orange Bowl, while mentoring 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 while hosting other popular events such as the Ladies Day Clinic. Both also have been terrific in leading our program during some incredibly tough stretches, including the tragic passing of wide receiver Tylee Craft this season.”

Brown, 73 years-of-age, is one of just three active coaches with a national championship on his resume 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 program has taken a significant step back the past two seasons.

North Carolina (6-5) lost four consecutive games after a 3-0 start to the season. The Tar Heels gave up a ridiculous 70 points to James Madison in a 70-50 loss to start that streak and the fourth loss was a 41-34 defeat to Georgia Tech after the Yellow Jackets scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 68-yard scamper with 16 seconds left on the clock.

The Tar Heels have rebounded, going 3-1 since that four-game losing streak, but they lost 41-21 to the Boston College Eagles in Week 13. The Eagles carried the rock 52 times for 228 yards and three scores in the victory while North Carolina could only mustered 36 yards on 25 attempts thanks to seven sacks of quarterback Jacolby Criswell.

“While this was not the perfect time and way in which I imagined going out, no time will ever be the perfect time,” Brown said in a statement. “I’ve spent 16 seasons at North Carolina and will always cherish the memories and relationships Sally and I have built while serving as head coach. We’ve had the chance to coach and mentor some great young men, and we’ll miss having the opportunity to do that in the future. Moving forward, my total focus is on helping these players and coaches prepare for Saturday’s game against NC State and give them the best chance to win. We want to send these seniors out right and I hope our fans will show up Saturday to do the same.”

Brown returned to his love of coaching in 2019 after a stint at ESPN following his departure from the University of Texas after the 2013 season. After Brown was ‘Mister Fixit’ for Tulane turning them into a six-win, bowl-eligible team two seasons after the Green Wave went 1-10 in Brown’s first season as a college head coach in 1985, he was hired at North Carolina in 1988.

The Tar Heels were 2-20 in his first two seasons before having a resurgence and posting eight straight winning seasons. Brown left North Carolina for Texas after the program went 10-1 in 1997.

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

Texas won at least 10 games in nine straight seasons from 2001 through 2009. However, things went array after that BCS title game loss. Texas was 5-7 the following season and never won 10 games again under Brown. As Texas scuffled to an eight-win season in 2013, Brown walked away abruptly that December and said that Texas had not been living up to 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 on its coaching search. Very few power conference coaches are expected to lose their jobs this offseason thanks to a lack of top-tier candidates and the impending player revenue-sharing agreement via the House settlement.