Pete Thamel reveals reasoning behind Mack Brown firing: 'UNC simply wasn't good enough on the field'

North Carolina head coach Mack Brown said on Monday that he intended to be back for the 2025 season. A day later, he was fired as the head coach of the Tar Heels.

ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel shared what changed over a 24-hour period when appearing on College Football Live on Tuesday.

“What changed was simple. When Mack Brown said yesterday that he intended to return, he made clear that he had not spoken to Bubba Cunningham, the Athletics Director, and UNC officials,” Pete Thamel said. “They did speak on Monday night. And the intentions of North Carolina were different from the intentions of Mack Brown.”

As Thamel mentioned, Brown said Monday that he had not talked to Bubba Cunningham yet but that he planned to after the season. Instead, he was fired ahead of the matchup with NC State on Saturday.

“You never talk to your Athletics Director until the year’s over,” Mack Brown said Monday. “Everybody always does that. My total focus is on NC State. What an awful thing to be talking about me when we just played a bad game and need to beat State.”

North Carolina enters Saturday’s game against NC State with a 6-5 record. The Tar Heels have clinched a bowl berth for a sixth straight year under Mack Brown, but that wasn’t enough to save his job.

It has been an up-and-down season for UNC. North Carolina won three straight games to open the year, before losing four games in a row. The Tar Heels had appeared to right the ship with three straight wins, but a 41-21 loss to Boston College this past weekend proved to be the final straw for Mack Brown.

“Look, this is pretty cut and dry. This is a bottom line business, and UNC simply wasn’t good enough on the field. They’re 6-5 overall this year. They’re 3-4 in the ACC. They gave up 70 points to James Madison this year,” Thamel said. “And on Saturday, they trailed Boston College 41-7 in a game against an ACC team North Carolina officials feel like they should be able to beat.

“UNC officials had hoped all year that if Mack Brown came to this decision on the own, they could walk to the door and celebrate. That didn’t happen. He got fired. He’ll only be paid out about $3 million, which is generally speaking for a Hall of Fame coach a financially tenable way for UNC to depart with him.”