At long last, the right decision was made.

The University of North Carolina has announced, and head coach Mack Brown has confirmed with the team, that he will not be returning for the 2025 Carolina Football season. Rumors were circulating in the wake of UNC’s home victory over Wake Forest two weeks ago that Coach Brown was telling players and recruits he intended to be back. The Athletic Department clearly saw things differently. It was not quite the graceful exit many Tar Heels – this blog included – had hoped for, but evidently Coach Brown was determined, against better judgement, to try to stick it out. After the Boston College blowout, his position became untenable.

Would Brown have had a chance to stay had Carolina won against BC, or at least been competitive, and went on to beat State plus the bowl opponent for a 9-win season? We may never know. In any case, keeping him would have been a mistake. The Tar Heels suffered utter collapses of discipline and performed terribly to end the 2022 and 2023 seasons. This year, Carolina was embarrassed at home when a supposedly-improved UNC defense yielded 70 points to G5 James Madison in September. That 70-50 calamity inaugurated a four-game losing streak. In the context of the previous two years and the failure of Brown to ever have a defense better than that of 2019 – his first season back in Chapel Hill – he could not have been allowed to remain if UNC really wanted to turn the corner and be nationally relevant on any kind of sustainable basis.

Mack is a legend here and around the world of college football. We will certainly consider his legacy as a whole and also look to the future of Tar Heel Football here in the days and weeks to come. For now, thank you Mack. And thanks to UNC for making the right, though difficult, call.

For a bit of prep on the coaching search to come, here’s our piece about potential hires after the 2024 season from a few weeks back: https://tarredandfeathered.blog/2024/11/13/the-future-of-carolina-football/ . The only thing that has really changed is Curt Cignetti is probably now out of reach for Tar Heel Football after he signed an $8 million/year (plus bonuses) deal that covers the next 8 years.