North Carolina Tar Heels announce that football coach Mack Brown won’t be back in 2025

The North Carolina Tar Heels will part ways with legendary football coach Mack Brown after the season, the school announced on Tuesday.

After Saturday’s 41-21 loss to Boston College, the North Carolina Tar Heels football team is preparing for an offseason coaching change.

The school announced on Tuesday that legendary coach Mack Brown won’t be back for 2025 despite initially being under contract through the 2027 season.

Brown first coached UNC from 1988-97, a tenure that started with consecutive 1-10 seasons before ending with back-to-back 10-win seasons. He left Chapel Hill for the Texas Longhorns, where he won a national championship in 2005 before he stepped away from coaching in 2013.

He chose to return to Chapel Hill in 2019, and he’s won at least six games in all six seasons since. However, despite his program-leading 113 wins in 16 seasons, the Tar Heels suffered some embarrassing losses in 2024. UNC gave up 70 points to James Madison in their home stadium in Week 4 and blew a 20-0 lead over the Duke Blue Devils in Durham before letting Boston College quarterback Grayson James lead a 20-point victory in his third start with the Eagles.

Saturday’s loss dropped the team to 6-5 for the season with three wins in its last eight games.

Despite a headline earlier this season that insinuated Brown asked his players if he should step away, the UNC coach insisted he wanted to return for next season.