The North Carolina football team is in the midst of a tough year as they are currently 6-5, and the school made the decision to fire head coach Mack Brown on Tuesday. Brown has been the head coach of the Tar Heels since 2019, and he has strung together six mediocre seasons. Brown is currently 73, so he was likely going to retire within the next couple years anyways. That could end up hurting recruiting, and the school decided to move on.

North Carolina does still have one game left this season as they will be taking on rival NC State this weekend. The Wolfpack are hoping to become bowl eligible with a win, and the Tar Heels will have Mack Brown coaching for that game.

Brown has been coaching since 1973 as he got his career started at Florida State working with the wide receivers. He got his first head coaching job in 1983 at Appalachian State, and then he was the head coach at Tulane before beginning his first stint with the North Carolina football team.

From 1988-1997, Brown was the head coach of the Tar Heels, and he was extremely successful. That led to his long career at Texas. Brown coached the Longhorns until 2013, and after a six year break, he came back to North Carolina.

Now, the Tar Heels will be looking for a new head coach this offseason. Here are some names that are already floating around:

Matt Campbell, Iowa State

Matt Campbell is going to continue to come up in these coaching vacancy conversations. He has done a good job of building Iowa State into a contender in the Big 12, and it's not just because of Texas and Oklahoma leaving. The Cyclones have been good for a while now, and they aren't going anywhere with Campbell leading things.

Campbell took over a struggling Iowa State team in 2016, but they have had some very successful seasons since then. 2020 was the best year as the Cyclones won the Big 12 regular season (they lost in the conference title game), and they are now in the running once again as they are currently tied for first in the conference.

The one concern here for North Carolina is whether or not it's worth it for Campbell to leave Iowa State for a program like North Carolina. The Tar Heels have some solid years in football, but it is a basketball school. Is it a good enough program to sway Campbell away from the Cyclones?

Rhett Lashlee, SMU

One coach that the North Carolina football program might go after is Rhett Lashlee, the current head coach at SMU. It would be a big win for the Tar Heels if they can take a head coach from one of the best teams in the ACC. Lashlee is doing a fantastic job in his first year in this conference as the Mustangs are all alone in first place, and they are one win away from completing a perfect ACC season in year one.

The thing about Rhett Lashlee is that he might be more expensive than some other candidates. He has SMU at the top of the ACC already, and it's going to be tough to pull him away from that. However, unlike Iowa State, North Carolina is a better program than SMU and it is built for more sustained success.

Jamey Chadwell, Liberty

This season isn't go as well as Jamey Chadwell hoped, but he will still be talked about in terms of power four head coach vacancies. It wouldn't be surprising at all if the North Carolina football team considers Chadwell. He has had a lot of success coaching at Coastal Carolina and Liberty, and his past success makes up for this year that hasn't been quite as good.

A benefit of Jamey Chadwell is that he would be cheaper than coaches like Matt Campbell and Rhett Lashlee. Chadwell hasn't coached at the power four level yet, so he still has something to prove. It would be more of a gamble, but he has still shown that he can win at his previous stops.

This is a big coaching search for North Carolina. They are obviously all big, but because of how much everything is changing in college sports right now, head coaching searches feel even more crucial now. If you hire the wrong guy, you can easily get left behind.