Legendary College Football Coach To Be Fired, per Report

11/26/2024 10:32 AM

Legendary college football head coach Mack Brown is reportedly expected to be fired, according to a report from 247Sports on Tuesday morning.

Brown, 73, announced this week that he planned on returning to work in 2025. North Carolina is 6-5 on the season. Brown, who won a national championship at Texas, has been leading the Tar Heels program since 2019. This is Brown's second stint leading the UNC program, as he was the head coach in Chapel Hill from 1988-97, before leaving for Austin. But while Brown made it clear that he wanted to return in 2025, it doesn't sound like the school is on the same page.

247Sports and CBS Sports college football insider Matt Zenitz reported the news on Tuesday morning.

"North Carolina is expected to fire Mack Brown," he reported on Tuesday.

Brown was asked by reporters on Monday if he was planning on returning to North Carolina in 2025.

"Yes," he said.

Brown and the Tar Heels program have been through a lot in 2024. Earlier this year, they lost former UNC wide receiver Tylee Craft to cancer. Brown said that his perspective changed after that happened.

"I realized at that time the team needed me more than ever before. So, probably more than any other time in my career, in my life, I feel like these kids and these coaches need me to step up and be strong and try to help them learn to navigate through these storms and this turmoil," Brown said.

North Carolina has won three of its last four games, though the Tar Heels' job is considered by some to be a bit of a sleeping giant. It's in a fertile recruiting state with good resources. Perhaps the Tar Heels believe that they can do better than Brown, one of the most accomplished head coaches in college football history, at this point in his career.

The Tar Heels will finish the 2024 season on Saturday against North Carolina State.