Who Will Lead Tar Heel Football in 2025 and Beyond?

Even if the 2024 Tar Heels win out, all signs point to the end of the Mack Brown era once the season concludes. His second departure from Carolina would mark the end of a legendary coaching career, a career filled with winning on the field and helping young people to reach their potential. Since his return to Chapel Hill in 2019, Coach Brown has reinvigorated interest in UNC Football by recruiting more talented players than UNC is accustomed to and attracting significantly more funding from boosters for needed facilities upgrades to give the program a chance to be nationally relevant once more. He has also become the winningest coach in program history. We’ll save the recounting of the rest of his legacy for such time as he does actually make an announcement, but suffice it to say, there will be big shoes for the athletic department to fill.

Though he deserves the opportunity to exit with a final bowl game and resign by his own hand, the reasons to move on from Brown after 2024 are clear. Brown’s first three years back in Chapel Hill, featuring Sam Howell at QB, went from an inspired 7-6 to 8-5 and then declined to 6-7. Both of Drake Maye’s seasons at QB, including a 6-0 top 10 start in 2023, began in brilliant fashion before ending in a multi-game collapse. The 2024 season began without a NFL-caliber QB and thus with lower expectations. But even those expectations were dashed against the rocks of a 70-50 home loss to James Madison. A power conference football team should never yield 70 points in a game… especially at home… especially to a non-power conference opponent. Coach Brown has brought some brilliant offense to Chapel Hill in his second run in Carolina blue. Where his teams have consistently failed to perform is on defense. Since his return, 2019 was the only year in which UNC’s defense was top 50 in both yardage and points allowed per game. There have been a couple seasons where Carolina wasn’t even in the top 100. In addition to struggles with finishing games and whole seasons, Brown is the oldest coach in the FBS at 73 years of age. The uncertainty surrounding his continued presence at UNC is a distinct disadvantage in recruiting and it’s a problem that can only get worse from here. After three top 15 classes from 2020-22, the Tar Heels have dropped back down the rankings and are recruiting no better than their in-state peers. A new coach is needed to put Carolina in the best position to compete, especially considering the likelihood of a departure from the ACC in the coming years.

So, Who Should Get the Job?

One option is to hire internally. Out of all the names on the current UNC staff, former Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens seems the most likely choice. Indeed, as run game coordinator and TE coach, Kitchens is responsible for two of the most effective elements of Carolina Football over the last two seasons. Where this path falls flat is image. The image of the Tar Heels over the last six seasons is, “they’re pretty good, but…” You can finish that sentence a lot of ways: “…wait for them to give up the big play,” “…wait for the late season collapse,” “…wait for the holding penalty.” To wash all this away, the program needs to clean house. It may not be fair to Kitchens, or to WR coach Lonnie Galloway, or the number of other coaches that have given their all to Carolina Football during Mack 2.0. But that’s college football. Big time programs don’t do what’s fair; they do what needs to be done.

If Carolina doesn’t look within, then the program could seek out an established name, as was done when Brown was lured out of the broadcast booth in 2018. The problem is there aren’t many like that around that would take the job. The Brown hire was one of the more surprising outcomes in the last decade of FBS hiring. Nick Saban is not leaving College Gameday, and if he did it would not be for UNC, to whom he has zero connection beyond losing the Drake Maye commitment. Is Lane Kiffin going from Ole Miss to UNC since the Florida job is taken for at least one more year? Absurd. Ed Orgeron? Delightful idea, but not happening. That’s not to say the well of well-trod names is completely dry, however.

One veteran name the Heels ought to pursue is Gus Malzahn, the 59-year old head coach at UCF. Yes, yes, his last two seasons in Orlando have been rough. Yes, he was rumored to be a candidate to take over at UNC in 2011 and didn’t. Think big picture, though. In the midst of Nick Saban’s dynasty at Alabama, Malzahn won a SEC championship at Auburn and took the Tigers to a national championship game. At 68-35 after eight seasons, Auburn fans still largely rue his firing and are now enduring a painful rebuild as their program tries to recover from the Bryan Harsin debacle. Gus Malzahn isn’t Nick Saban, but he did beat the GOAT more often than his peers. He quite literally wrote the book on the hurry-up offense and he holds a winning SEC record (38-27). It’s true his losing bowl record looks like more of the same to weary Tar Heel eyes, but Malzahn has the gravitas and the extensive knowledge of Xs and Os to make things work in Chapel Hill. Hiring him would be an emphatic signal that the athletic department is serious about keeping Carolina Football relevant. Overall FBS record: 104-59

Another national name that has been floated is Jeff Saturday. With all due respect to Saturday, who is a Super Bowl champion and genuinely great Tar Heel, this is a terrible idea. No, it’s not because of his 1-7 record as interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2022. It’s his lack of relevant experience. Saturday has never been so much as a position coach in the college game. He has never had to recruit. He has never helped build a FBS program. Furthermore, UNC is not the kind of football program that can simply hire “within the family” and look attractive to out-of-state recruits. A big time football job demands a sound track record.

This isn’t to say that hiring a UNC Football alum is out of the question. The white whale hire would be Ben Johnson, the brilliant 38-year old offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions (2nd out of 32 teams in scoring). Johnson has limited experience at the FBS level, but has worked in the NFL for over a decade. His impressive track record has made him the talk of the town to lead several franchises and it seems extremely doubtful that the former Tar Heel walk-on would venture into the collegiate ranks given the NFL opportunities that await him. A more realistic target would be 42-year old Arthur Smith, a Carolina offensive lineman from 2001-05 who is now OC for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Smith took a lot of heat for his consistently unimpressive three years as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons (7-10 each season, no playoff births), but his 2024 Steelers offense ranks 12th in scoring – as of the end of week 10 – and he ran an even better offense in Tennessee from 2019-20.

Back to the college game, the coach we at T&F would most like to see interviewed by Carolina is Curt Cignetti, the 63-year old sensation at Indiana. In his very first year in Bloomington, he has brought the Hoosiers their first ever 10-win season behind a top 10 defense and an offense to match. Prior to Indiana, Cignetti spent five years at James Madison, where he led the Dukes through their transition from Division I FCS to the FBS and amassed a record of 52-9. Cignetti earned his stripes coaching various offensive positions. Notably, he coached 2003 ACC Player of the Year Philip Rivers at NC State before working for Nick Saban’s Alabama from 2007-10, where he recruited Heisman winner Mark Ingram and also coached WRs such as Julio Jones. “I win, Google me,” is the sort of attitude the Tar Heels badly need, and if Coach Cig is willing to move on, he should be the next head coach in Chapel Hill. Overall FBS record: 29-4

Often in college football, a lot of noise is followed by a lot of nothing. Deion Sanders has been no stranger to creating noise in his five years coaching college football, but he’s also generated results to back it up. Coach Prime took FCS Jackson State from 4-3 during a Covid-shortened 2020 to two consecutive Celebration Bowls with double-digit win totals each season. Leaving Jackson State with a 27-6 record in hand, he arrived in Boulder, Colorado in 2023 and inaugurated another program turnaround. The Colorado Buffaloes had precisely three seven-win (or better) seasons in the 20 years prior to the arrival of Deion Sanders. In year one, Sanders went 4-8. In year two, he’s already at 7-2 in mid-November, with Big 12 title hopes and, thus, a CFP birth still on the table. Sanders has wielded the new tools of NIL money and the transfer portal greatly to his advantage. Where the jury is still out is if he can be effective at building a program that succeeds in a sustainable fashion, forging relationships with high school coaches and developing homegrown talent. So far, by his own admission, his teams have been run more like the NFL. The results on the field speak for themselves, but as Tar Heel fans learned toward the end of the Larry Fedora era, neglecting in-state high school recruiting comes at a price. The risks of hiring Deion Sanders are high. There’s still no denying that bringing him to Chapel Hill would be fun beyond belief. Overall FBS record: 11-10

An experienced option who sits slightly under-the-radar would be Army’s Jeff Monken. Like Sanders, Monken is 57 years old. Unlike Sanders, he has led his current program for a decade. It’s harder to recruit to the service academies than elsewhere, so Monken’s up-and-down record at West Point is no surprise. But he is a winning coach who wins without the benefit of the transfer portal and before Army he was a winner at FCS Georgia Southern for four years as well. His 2024 Army Black Knights are unbeaten and feature a competent offense paired with a defense that ranks no. 1 in points and no. 6 in yardage. No, they haven’t played anybody yet as of week 11. But they’ve beaten who they’re supposed to beat, and that’s more than can be said of the Tar Heels. Overall FBS record: 79-55

UNC might also find an up-and-coming coach from a lesser-known program, as happened when Mack Brown was originally hired from Tulane in 1988. Speaking of Tulane (8-2, 6-0 AAC), 42-year old head coach Jon Sumrall is someone Carolina fans should keep an eye on. Sumrall played linebacker at Kentucky before spending over 15 years coaching various defensive positions and acting as co-DC at programs such as Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Tulane. Prior to leading the Tulane Green Wave on this year’s winning campaign, he took over for current UNC OC Chip Lindsey as head coach of the Troy Trojans from 2022-23. Sumrall’s Trojans won two Sun Belt championships in as many seasons and finished as AP no. 19 in 2022. Overall FBS record: 31-6

Bob Chesney is another youthful name Tar Heel fans should know by heart, as the 47-year old led the James Madison Dukes (7-2, 3-2 Sun Belt) to their infamous upset win in Chapel Hill on September 21st. This is only Chesney’s first year in Harrisonburg, but he is an experienced coach who has won at every level of college football from Division III Salve Regina to an exciting six years at FCS Holy Cross. In 15 seasons as a head coach, Chesney has gone 118-48. Overall FBS record: 7-2

Any of Cignetti, Malzahn, Monken, Sumrall, or Chesney would be a strong hire. Ben Johnson seems like a home run, but it would be shocking if he even seriously considered the role. Deion Sanders would be extremely entertaining and probably would work out with some commitment on his part to high school recruiting. There are some other coaches in the G5 that could make sense, but here we’ve tried to present the best of the best, the coaches we would most want to see leading UNC Football into its next era. For the immediate future, if Coach Brown has decided his time at Carolina is over, the announcement and the new hire need to be made official as soon as possible after the Heels hang up their cleats for the year. UNC’s 2025 recruiting class is thin, but there are some game-changers in there like QB Bryce Baker and OT Alex Payne that the program needs to do its level best to retain. Whatever happens this offseason at Carolina, there can be no dithering.