The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is moving on from football coach Mack Brown.
A statement from UNC Athletics released Tuesday morning says that Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham informed Brown that he will not return as the Tar Heels head coach next season. Brown, the winningest coach in the history of UNC football who is in his sixth season of his second stint leading the Tar Heels, will coach the team in its regular season finale on Saturday against rival N.C. State. It's unclear if Brown will coach the Tar Heels in their bowl game.
The announcement from Cunningham comes a day after Brown, 73, told reporters that he intended to be the coach of the Tar Heels in 2025.
"I've said I'm going to do it as long as I'm happy, as long as I'm healthy and as long as I'm effective. I'm not going to think about retiring. I'm not going to talk about retiring," Brown said Monday. He added that he hadn't spoken to Cunningham at that point and that his "total focus" was on N.C. State.
Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018 and has more wins than any other active head coach. Between his two stints in Chapel Hill, he coached Texas to a national championship in 2005.
The native of Cookeville, Tennessee, has been at the helm of the two most successful eras of UNC football in the past 40 years. He first coached the Tar Heels from 1988 to 1997, leading them to three 10-win seasons, three bowl wins, and a No. 4 ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll. Brown left Chapel Hill for Austin, Texas, to coach the Longhorns where he went 158-48 in 16 seasons.
Brown resigned and retired from his position at Texas in 2013 and worked for several years as a TV analyst for ESPN. In 2019, after UNC fired Larry Fedora after a 2-9 season, they lured Brown back to Chapel Hill and tasked him with reviving the program after two consecutive bowl-less seasons.
By the standards of most programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Brown's second stint as UNC's football coach would be considered a success. He finished with a losing record just once and has gone 44-32 overall with what will be a sixth bowl game appearance this season.
But many UNC fans felt that the program underachieved under Brown, considering the team had two NFL quarterbacks during his tenure — Sam Howell and Drake Maye — and won nothing of real significance. Brown's Tar Heels made the ACC title game in 2022 with Maye, only to be blown out by Clemson in Charlotte 39-10. Brown has also lost three straight games to rival N.C. State, blew a 20-point lead this season in a loss to Duke, and lost a game at home to App State in 2019.
Brown also went through three defensive coordinators during his time in Chapel Hill, a group that included two former head coaches. The unit never ranked better than 44th nationally in points allowed per game in a single season.
UNC has not won an ACC title in football since 1980 and has never appeared in the College Football Playoff.
In terms of results on the field, things seemed to take a turn for the worse under Brown in September when, after suffering a wild 70-50 home loss to James Madison, Brown reportedly offered his resignation to his players in the locker room before later walking back those comments.
UNC football then endured the death of a teammate, Tylee Craft, after a lengthy battle with cancer. After Craft's death, the team rallied and won three straight games to reach bowl eligibility before losing 41-21 at Boston College this past weekend.
“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. “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… We want to send these seniors out right and I hope our fans will show up Saturday to do the same.”
In his statement, Cunningham commended Brown's leadership during Craft's illness and death.
"Coach Brown has led the Carolina football program back into the national conversation as we improved the program's facilities, significantly increased the size of the staff, invested in salaries and bolstered our nutrition and strength and conditioning programs," Cunningham said. "We thank Coach Brown for his dedication to Carolina, and wish him, Sally and their family all the best."
This will be the third head football coach hire for Cunningham, who has been the Tar Heels' athletic director since 2011, and the first for UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts.
Brown has three years remaining on his contract, amounting to about $2.8 million, which will be paid out by the UNC athletic department.
UNC-Chapel Hill is the third Division I college football program in the state to dismiss its head coach this season. East Carolina fired former coach Mike Houston in October, and Charlotte let Biff Poggi go earlier this month.
