UNC fires coach Mack Brown after six seasons of second stint with program-ZoomTech News

Mack Brown’s tenure at North Carolina is about to come back to an finish.

UNC will let go of Brown on the finish of the 2024 season, the school announced Tuesday. He’ll coach in Saturday’s regular-season finale towards North Carolina State. A call has but to be made on whether or not Brown will coach within the staff’s bowl sport. 

“Mack Brown has gained extra video games than any soccer coach in UNC historical past, and we deeply recognize all that he has achieved for Carolina soccer and our College,” UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham mentioned in a press release. “During the last six seasons — his second marketing campaign in Chapel Hill — he has coached our staff to 6 bowl berths, together with an Orange Bowl, whereas mentoring 18 NFL draft picks. 

“He and his spouse Sally have achieved an impressive job supporting the Carolina neighborhood, together with elevating funds for UNC Youngsters’s Hospital whereas internet hosting different fashionable occasions such because the Women Day Clinic. Each even have been terrific in main our program throughout some extremely robust stretches, together with the tragic passing of vast receiver Tylee Craft this season.”

The transfer may mark the top of Brown’s legendary teaching profession. Brown, 73, was principally recognized for his tenure at Texas, the place he led the Longhorns to a nationwide championship victory within the 2005 season earlier than making it again to the title sport in 2009. He went 158-48 over his 16 seasons in Austin, leaving as the college’s second-winningest coach after the 2013 season.

Brown was additionally a profitable coach over his two tenures at North Carolina. He gained 10 video games in back-to-back seasons on the finish of his first stint with this system (1988-97) earlier than taking the Texas job in 1998. He returned to Chapel Hill forward of the 2019 season, serving to the Tar Heels change into bowl-eligible in every of the six seasons after his return. He led North Carolina to the Orange Bowl in 2020 and gained 9 video games in 2022.

Brown is within the midst of one of many weaker seasons of his embellished profession. North Carolina is bowl-eligible at 6-5, however has suffered a number of painful losses this season. The losses led some to query if this may be his remaining season with this system.

As Brown prepares to place a bow on his second run at North Carolina, the college thanked him for serving to revive this system after a number of dormant seasons. 

“Coach Brown has led the Carolina soccer program again into the nationwide dialog as we improved this system’s amenities, considerably elevated the scale of the workers, invested in salaries and bolstered our diet and power and conditioning packages,” Cunningham mentioned. “He additionally has been a devoted fundraiser, strengthening the soccer endowment whereas additionally supporting our different sports activities packages.

“We thank Coach Brown for his dedication to Carolina, and want him, Sally and their household all the perfect.”

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