Along with Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Georgia's Kirby Smart, North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown is one of just three active NCAA coaches who have a National Title to their name. However, soon enough that number could be down to two, because in the midst of a tumultuous 3-4 season, it's beginning to look more and more like Brown's time in Chapel Hill may be coming to an end.

“It just doesn’t seem like there’s a way out for him to be the coach there next year,” ESPN College Football insider Pete Thamel said on a recent episode of the College Gameday Podcast. “I don’t know how the end is going to happen quite yet, but I think there’s an expectation in the industry that it does happen at some point.

Thamel noted that Mack Brown is well-respected around the sport and in Chapel Hill, and that he’s very image-conscious, so this could be a case where at season's end, the two sides decide to “mutually part ways.” Given Brown's advanced age — at 73 years old, he's the elder statesmen of Division I head coaches — it's reasonable to believe that he would, of his own volition, decide to step down. It's a distinction that North Carolina would potentially be willing to give Brown considering his history with the school.

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This is Mack Brown's second stint as the head coach of the Tar Heels. He spent ten seasons as the head coach at North Carolina from 1988 to 1997. After a pair of one-win seasons to begin his tenure, Brown and the Tar Heels rattled off eight straight years with a winning record, a streak that remains the longest in program history. From there, Brown took over at the University of Texas, where along with Heisman Trophy runner-up Vince Young, he led the Longhorns to their first National Title since 1969.

Mack Brown's second tenure at North Carolina started with a great deal of promise. The Tar Heels made their first ever Orange Bowl appearance in 2020, and won nine games in 2022, their second-highest total since Brown had left Chapel Hill the first time. But over halfway through the 2024 season, the Tar Heels still don't have a win in ACC play and are at risk at missing out on bowl eligibility for the first time since Larry Fedora was coaching the team in 2018.