According to Inside Carolina’s Evan Rogers on 247Sports.com, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown, 73, told reporters on Monday that he does not intend to retire after the 2024 season and expects to return for the 2025 campaign.
This news comes a few days after 247Sports.com’s Matt Zenitz reported that Brown has recently told North Carolina staff, players and recruits that he will remain with the school after the current season.
In the middle of their sixth year with Brown as their head coach, the Tar Heels are heading into their final game of the regular season with a disappointing 6-5 record.
After finishing with at least eight wins in 2022 and 2023, North Carolina has taken a few steps back this season. However, when a program loses an elite quarterback like the Tar Heels did after the 2023 campaign when Drake Maye left to enter the NFL Draft, some regression was to be expected.
Still, some hoped Brown could help North Carolina succeed even more during his sixth year at the school. Instead, the Tar Heels haven’t appeared in the AP Top-25 poll at any point this season for the first time since 2019, when Brown became the school’s new head coach.
Brown is in the middle of his second stint as North Carolina’s head coach. The Tar Heels hired him in 1988, and he remained with the school until after the 1997 season, when he left to become the new head coach for Texas.
With the Longhorns, Brown achieved the most success of his coaching career. He helped the school win at least 10 games for nine straight seasons, including the 2005 campaign, when Texas finished with a 13-0 record and won that season’s National Championship.
Luckily, North Carolina is already bowl-eligible this year, so the school’s season likely won’t be over if it loses to a 5-6 North Carolina State team on Saturday.
But this weekend’s matchup is also one the Tar Heels should be able to win. Suppose North Carolina somehow ends up on the losing side of the scoreboard after Saturday’s game, though. Could the school end its relationship with Brown earlier than he anticipates?