UNC needs a new football coach. Who could replace Mack Brown on Tar Heels sideline?
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UNC football moves on from Mack Brown
North Carolina fired head football coach Mack Brown on Tuesday, Nov. 26, just four days before the team’s final regular-season game, against rival N.C. State.
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For the third time since becoming North Carolina’s athletics director in November 2011, Bubba Cunningham has a head football coaching opening to fill.
On Monday, Cunningham informed Mack Brown, who returned for his second stint with the Tar Heels in November 2018, that he would not be the Tar Heels coach after this season.
Cunningham’s first hire was Larry Fedora, who moved to Chapel Hill following a head-coaching stint at Southern Mississippi. Cunningham fired Fedora in November 2018 after he’d compiled a 45-43 overall record, going 28-28 in ACC play.
Brown had left as Texas’ head coach following the 2013 season and worked for ESPN before he agreed to return to UNC, where he’d first been the Tar Heels head coach from 1988-1997.
So where will Cunningham turn this time? Fedora was a successful head coach at the Group of Five level. Brown was already a Hall of Famer with a national championship to his name.
Here are some candidates that merit consideration at UNC this time around:
Jon Sumrall
Hiring the Tulane coach worked well for UNC the first time, with Brown in 1988. Why not again?
Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, 42, has put together an impressive record as a head coach in a short amount of time. At Troy, his teams were 23-4 in two seasons and Sun Belt champions. With the Green Wave, he has led them to a 9-2 record this season and spot in the American Athletic Conference title game.
Tulane is No. 20 in the College Football Playoff rankings with an outside chance of getting into the playoffs.
Sumrall is a defensive-oriented coach who has had assistant coaching stops at Mississippi and Kentucky, where he played linebacker from 2002-2004 and later was defensive coordinator.
Sumrall hoped to secure the Troy head coaching job in 2018 but Chip Lindsey, now UNC’s offensive coordinator, was hired. He later was hired by Troy in 2021, leading the Trojans to 12-2 and 11-2 records before going to Tulane.
Glenn Schumann
Georgia’s defensive coordinator looks like a good fit given UNC’s chronic defensive issues over the years.
Just 34 years old, Glenn Schumann has big-time experience that belies his youth. He’s already been part of six national championship teams.
Schumann worked as a student assistant coach at Alabama before graduating in 2011. He stayed on Nick Saban’s staff from 2011-14 as a graduate assistant before moving to Georgia where he’s been since 2016 on Kirby Smart’s staff. He’s coached inside linebackers the entire time, while adding defensive coordinator duties since 2019.
Alabama won four national championships (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015) during his time with the Crimson Tide and Georgia added two more with Schumann as its defensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022.
The NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles interviewed Schumann for their open defensive coordinator position last year but he opted to stay in college football.
Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell’s tenure at Iowa State has seen the head coach revitalize a program that had long been a Big 12 afterthought. Consistent success has been historically elusive at Iowa State, which managed just one winning conference record between 1989 and 2016. In his ninth year, Campbell is the Cyclones’ winningest coach — with six winning Big 12 seasons since 2017.
Campbell has molded the Cyclones into a yearly bowl contender and guided them to a 9-3 season and a Fiesta Bowl victory in 2020 during the Brock Purdy era.
Campbell’s track record of success at a school with limited resources is one of his biggest selling points. Athletic director Jamie Pollard told CBS Sports in October that “college football needs an Iowa State right now” highlighting Campbell’s ability to develop players and a strong culture despite a limited history of success in the program.
Known for his disciplined approach and ability, the 44-year-old coach is a compelling candidate to bring some youthful energy to a program previously run by the nation’s oldest college coach.
Jamey Chadwell
Jamey Chadwell has brought creativity and success to everywhere he’s coached, from Division II North Greenville to Coastal Carolina — and now Liberty. This season, the Flames are 8-2 as they head into the Conference USA championship game.
Chadwell’s offensive schemes — with a foundation in spread-option concepts and flexibility in formations and motion — helped Coastal Carolina achieve national prominence, including an 11-1 record in 2020.
While implementing Chadwell’s philosophy would mark a shift from North Carolina’s reliance on an air raid system over recent seasons, it will also empower dynamic quarterbacks. That will prove crucial if the highly-anticipated Bryce Baker — the best recruit in UNC’s 2025 class per On3.com — sticks with his original commitment to the Tar Heels.
With recruiting ties in the Carolinas and Virginia, Chadwell understands the regional landscape in which UNC operates. The primary concern for the 47-year-old coach is his lack of Power Five (now Power Four) experience, but his winning pedigree may outweigh that limitation for a program like North Carolina looking for sustained success.
Arthur Smith
Arthur Smith stands out as a potential candidate with ties to UNC and an intriguing resume. A former Tar Heel offensive lineman, Smith began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in Chapel Hill, giving him a strong connection to the area. He currently serves as the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers under head coach Mike Tomlin.
Smith’s NFL coaching experience, including three seasons as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, demonstrate his understanding of building and managing high level football programs – though his results were mixed.
One unique aspect of Smith’s candidacy is the potential influence of his father, Fred, the founder of FedEx. Fred Smith’s financial and logistical acumen may present a significant boost for NIL opportunities and broader program support at UNC, making his son a more valuable hire in the current college football landscape. At Memphis, FedEx’s $25 million NIL deal helped boost its athletics program and elevate the program’s national profile. The deal, announced in April, was believed to be the biggest corporate partnership of its kind at the time.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "UNC needs a new football coach. Who could replace Mack Brown on Tar Heels sideline?."
