Mack Brown on why it’s time to retire: ‘This isn’t the game I signed up for’

Following the conclusion of North Carolina‘s season, a contemplative Mack Brown opened up on why the timing was right for him to part ways with the program, one way or another.

Much of it had to do with the current landscape of college football, with NIL and the transfer portal commanding a good deal of a coach’s attention and free time.

At North Carolina, NIL challenges really heaped the pressure onto Brown.

“I told the kids I’m sure they’ll get a great coach,” Mack Brown said. “He’ll have a better situation than we did with NIL because of revenue sharing. We had about four million dollars. He’s going to have at least twelve. So it’ll be three, four times much more money for the kids. So that should really help them.”

That other factor, the transfer portal?

“People have asked about transfers,” Mack Brown said. “We signed 26 kids two years ago and not one of them got a penny. So all of them came out of high school here because they wanted to be here. So I don’t see them transferring.

“Now, money is different. We lost three or four recruits at the end this year just in the last two or three weeks because they got paid. We ask them and they said, ‘I got paid’. So, I mean, I got it. That’s the other reason that I think it’s a great time for me to get out. This isn’t the game that I signed up for. It has changed so much.”

Brown, who exited North Carolina with a 44-33 record in his second stint, reflected on a long journey.

He took over the program in 2019 and was hit one year later with COVID-19.

“If you think, since I’ve been here in six years? We went through COVID, which was very difficult for all of us,” Mack Brown said. “I mean, trying to coach a football team when you don’t even know if you’re going to have one? Then you couldn’t touch a football. Then you couldn’t sit in a room together, you couldn’t meet together. And we go to the Orange Bowl so I’m really, really proud of that and proud of the way the kids handled it because you take negatives and turn them into positives.”

At times, Brown had North Carolina on a roll. Drake Maye was a Heisman Trophy contender in 2022, and the program won nine games in the regular season and played for the ACC title.

Momentum was on the upswing, and the Tar Heels looked like they might start really cooking.

“Then we were recruiting really, really well until NIL came in,” Mack Brown said. “We’ve really dropped off with our recruiting. Then the transfer portal is not something that most of the academic schools are excited about because it’s hard to get in.

“So, right now, I think, is a wonderful time for somebody else to come in and take over. Like I said, we’re leaving it better than we found it. We’ve got wonderful kids. It’s a good roster. There’s some things they’ll need to do in the portal. I’m sure the administrators are looking for a coach. They’re worried. Signing Day has moved up and the portal is coming pretty soon. So I get all of that. I mean, I understand that they had to start looking… I’m not foolish. I knew that I probably wouldn’t be there in the end.”

Brown did express that he wished things had gone a little differently and the program hadn’t announced a firing before the season was over. Still, he conceded it was time for a change.

What’s his next step?

“My next chapter? Sally and I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Mack Brown said. “We’ve already had some opportunities this week to do different things. So we’re not sure where we’ll live and we’re not sure what we’ll do…

“I think, as I said, again, I agree with the administration that we should have new leadership. I’ve had enough. I’m excited about my next step and want to truly get out of the way so they can hire a great coach and keep moving forward for these kids and these fans.”