There was a lot of excitement in Chapel Hill ahead of the 2019 college football, when National Championship-winning head coach Mack Brown decided to return and lead the UNC football program.
Through seven games of the 2024 college football season, that excitement surrounding Brown has quickly turned to anger and disappointment.
Fans have already called for Brown’s firing, but it doesn’t appear North Carolina will go that route, especially with its season in a tailspin.
According to a recent report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Brown is expected to leave the Tar Heels after the coming season.
“The expectation in the industry is that Brown, who at 73 is the oldest coach in college football, figures out a way to exit gracefully,” Thamel wrote. “The slump, combined with Brown’s age, portends a change coming in Chapel Hill. If and how that exit comes remains to be seen, but there have been enough signs of atrophy in the program, that one more year for Brown is unlikely.”
UNC’s late-season collapses in both 2022 and 2023 created some initial concerns about Brown’s coaching ability, but the current meltdown seems to be the final straw.
North Carolina began its current campaign with consecutive wins at Minnesota, against Charlotte and NC Central. The Tar Heels struggled for large portions in each of those wins, though, leading many to wonder how good the Tar Heels actually were.
UNC got exposed in a 70-50 loss against James Madison, then blew a 17-point, second-half lead at archrival Duke. After two more losses to Pitt and Georgia Tech, particularly how the latter ended, frustrations about Brown came to a boil.
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