Mack Brown addresses questions about his future at North Carolina

With longtime Alabama head coach Nick Saban suddenly retiring last week, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown stands alone as the elder statesman of college football.

With that in mind, the 72-year-old was recently asked about what his future looks like with with the Tar Heels, giving a shoutout to the latest national champion and making it known that he has a clear vision vision for the program.

“Jim Harbaugh handles you guys better than anybody,” Brown said. “He said I’m glad I got a future, and that’s all he said and everybody lets it go. So I can’t figure that out.”

“I’m excited about spring practice, I’m excited about these two guys (Geoff Collins and Ted Monachino) coming in, the players are all pumped,” Brown added. “Again, we’re so close. We’re talking about an empty stadium and two wins five years ago and now we’re talking about griping at eight and nine (wins) and an Orange Bowl and a Coastal Championship. So we’re close man, we just got to take another step and it’s my job to figure out what that means.”

Brown returned to coach at North Carolina in 2019 following a 10-year stint with the program between 1988 and 1997. The 2024 football season will mark his 36th as a head coach, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

No head coach has coached in or won more games for the Tar Heels than Brown between his two separate tenures with the team. But his next task is taking the program to new heights and gaining more support from their fan base.

“And I’ve got to have the fans to get totally on board, get aligned, help us with NIL so that doesn’t get us kicked back. Our recruiting hasn’t been as good the last two years since NIL came in. We need to be as good at NIL as anybody in the country and we’ve got fans that can do that, but we’ve got to be passionate about it and that’s just something we’re asking,” Brown explained. “Buy the season tickets, get in those seats, we’re so close.”

Brown’s last two signing classes were not ranked within top three in the ACC or top 25 in the nation according to On3’s Industry Team Recruiting Rankings. But the Tar Heels have still found themselves within the Top 25 in the AP Poll regularly in the last two seasons.

An increase in fan engagement, recruiting, and success in the NIL space could get the Tar Heels over the hump. A hump that it seems like Brown is going to be in Chapel Hill for with no signs of retiring soon.

“We’re closer than we’ve ever been, let’s take another step. But we gotta do it together, we’ve got to do it. The administration is on board, Heels4Life‘s on board, our coaches are all on board, now we gotta get our fans to be totally on board,” Brown concluded.