UNC football coach Mack Brown uses one word to respond to multiple retirement questions
Update Nov. 26, 2024: Mack Brown will not return as UNC’s head coach for 2025 college football season. See details here.
The questions continue to swirl: Does Mack Brown intend to be the head football coach at North Carolina next season?
Brown, for his part, had a one-word answer Monday: “Yes.”
Brown may have believed he’d firmly established that point last week during a Sirius XM radio interview, saying, “There’s going to be a day I wake up and say somebody else needs to be doing this, and I haven’t gotten to that yet.”
Brown repeated that almost word for word Monday. At 73, he’s a Hall of Fame coach who has more career wins than any other active coach, a coach who won a national championship when he was at Texas. He and his wife, Sally, are financially set.
But “retirement” clearly is not a word he likes to hear, much less address. Once again Monday, he paraphrased an oft-used Bobby Bowden quote from Bowden’s coaching days at Florida State, Bowden saying there was only one major event awaiting after he retired and he wasn’t ready for that.
“When you’re 73, you get asked every day how long you’re going to do this,” Brown said Monday. “And I’ve said I’m going to do it as long as I’m happy, as long as I’m healthy and as long as I’m effective. I’m not going to think about retiring. I’m not going to talk about retiring.
“Not one player has come to me and asked me about my future. Not one coach has ever come up and asked about my future. That’s what happens this time of the year.”
Later Monday, however, North Carolina Athletic Director Boo Cunningham informed Brown that “he will not return as head coach,” according to a university statement released Tuesday morning.
The early signing date for football is Wednesday, Dec. 4, Brown noted. It’s that “time of the year,” especially for head coaches with some age on them.
The Tar Heels are 6-5 in the sixth season of Brown’s second run at UNC. All seemed well recently when the Tar Heels ran off three straight ACC wins, but the 41-21 beating Saturday at Boston College, a physical pounding at that, will further fuel the “Should Mack be back?” scuttlebutt heading into the rivalry game this week against N.C. State.
Brown has lost three in a row in the series. A year ago, the Wolfpack rolled to a 39-20 victory in Raleigh and NCSU coach Dave Doeren then made some derogatory comments in the Pack locker room about the Tar Heels.
Brown said Monday that he and Doeren have talked and are “good” about that situation. But another loss to Doeren and the Wolfpack on Senior Day at Kenan Stadium could create a situation of another sort: Will the UNC faithful continue to believe in Brown’s direction of the program, or would the belief be that it’s time for a change?
Brown said Monday he’d had no conversations about next season with athletic director Bubba Cunningham.
“You know, you never talk to your athletic director ‘til the year is over,” Brown said. “Everybody always does that. My total focus is on N.C. State.”
Tuesday, Brown reiterated that in a statement after his departure had been announced.
“We’ve had the chance to coach and mentor some great young men,” Brown said in his statement, “and we’ll miss having the opportunity to do that in the future. Moving forward, my total focus is on helping these players and coaches prepare for Saturday’s game against N.C. State and give them the best chance to win.”
Monday, Brown rehashed the loss at BC but there is not more to say. Brown said BC was more “desperate” about getting its sixth win to become bowl-eligible under first-year coach Bill O’Brien and played that way.
UNC defensive end Kaimon Rucker phrased it another way after the game, saying the Eagles wanted it more.
“He’s a young man and he was very, very disappointed,” Brown said Monday. “If you watched the game and the outcome of the game, it does look like they wanted it more than us. They didn’t want it more than us but they played well. That’s the difference.”
N.C. State played it that way last season at Carter-Finley Stadium. The Pack, led by linebacker Payton Wilson, made it a miserable day for quarterback Drake Maye, running back Omarion Hampton and the UNC offense while the Tar Heels’ defense couldn’t contain State’s K.C. Concepcion.
The Heels were hurt by the elusiveness of BC quarterback Grayson James, who escaped the pass rush to make plays, keep the chains moving and score points — BC led 24-7 at halftime and 41-7 in the second half before a couple of late UNC touchdown runs by Devon Gause.
The Pack has an even more elusive quarterback in C.J. Bailey, the true freshman forced into the starter’s role this season because of Grayson McCall’s recurring concussion issues that caused the transfer from Coastal Carolina to give up football
“He’s 6-6, has a live arm, does a nice job with the offense, has zip on the ball,” defensive coordinator Geoff Collins said Monday. “It looks like as the season has gone on, he has gotten very comfortable with the scheme, with reading coverages. And when plays break down he’s able to make plays with his feet. We’ve got to be dialed in.”
UNC will have 31 players participate in the Senior Day pregame ceremony, including 17 scholarship players who have exhausted their eligibility. Wide receiver Tylee Craft, who died of cancer this season, also will be honored.
Not on the UNC list is running back Omarion Hampton. The junior, too, may be playing his last home game at Kenan Stadium, as many expect he will enter his name into the 2025 NFL draft after the season.
As for Brown, he said Monday he plans to be back at UNC in 2025, coaching, leading the program.
“When people ask, ‘Are you going to do this, going to do that?’ it’s not about me,” Brown said. “I’ve got the best life in the world. So my job is to try and help others, and what I can do right now is help these players.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 3:14 PM with the headline "UNC football coach Mack Brown uses one word to respond to multiple retirement questions."
