Mack Brown comments on firing of Gene Chizik, Tim Cross

Following the season, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown made the difficult decision to move on from defensive coordinator Gene Chizik and defensive line coach Tim Cross.

Brown recently commented on those firings, explaining that they came because the team is looking for more consistency moving forward.

“We’ve been really good on offense for the last five years,” Mack Brown said. “We’ve been inconsistent on defense, and I read somewhere where we’ve been inconsistent on defense since 2008, we just haven’t been consistently good. I love Gene Chizik and Tim Cross. They’re two of my great friends, they’re two of the nicest people, they have tremendous faith, they’re great fathers, they’re great husbands.”

Chizik was brought in by Brown to be the defensive coordinator in 2022. It was his second stint with the Tar Heels after taking five seasons off from the sport.

“Gene Chizik was involved with North Carolina football for four seasons. He had an 11 win season, a nine win season, and two eight win seasons,” Brown said. “So, we all have to thank him for what he did because he’s done some great things here. One of the best seasons we’ve ever had, he was involved with as our defensive coordinator.”

As for Tim Cross, he had been with North Carolina since Mack Brown began his second tenure with the team. He had previously been an assistant for Brown when he was the head coach of Texas.

“Tim Cross has done a lot of great things for the last five years and sitting down with Gene specifically, we both decided it was best to move in a different direction. He totally was on board. So, they are good people. I think when people want this guy fired or want that guy fired, they forget they’re human beings. We’re not playing with video games here.”

North Carolina ended the 2023 season 97th in total defense, giving up 404.4 yards per game. The Tar Heels were also 75th in scoring defense, giving up 27.3 points per game.

“But we’re in a production business and we understand that as we’re going through with it,” Brown said.

“So, when you start looking, we had the entire defensive staff interviewing coaches and when we started looking at what we wanted, we wanted somebody that’s going to be aggressive, somebody that’s going to be simple, somebody that was going to create havoc, somebody that’s going to force tackles for loss, somebody that’s going to get sacks.”

Mack Brown explains hiring of Geoff Collins

One hire Mack Brown recently made was bringing in former head coach Geoff Collins to be the next defensive coordinator.

“We looked at probably five people that we interviewed. The one that kept popping up to all of us was Geoff Collins. Experienced as a defensive coordinator at a lot of different places. But, specifically, did a great job at Mississippi State and at Florida. Been a head coach at Temple and Georgia Tech so he gets it. A tremendous recruiter, very passionate,” Brown said.

“You start looking at what Geoff has done? 27-year coaching veteran. Six years as a head coach, 11 years as a defensive coordinator. Top-notch recruiter. Produced more than three dozen NFL players.”