7 coaches who would make sense as successors for Mack Brown at North Carolina
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North Carolina announced its decision to part ways with Mack Brown on Tuesday morning.
The news comes near the end of a somewhat-disappointing end to Brown’s tenure as the Tar Heels are just 6-5 in 2024. However, Brown’s successor will have big shoes to fill — he’s the winningest coach in Carolina history and led the program to bowl games in 6 straight seasons to close out his 2nd stint in Chapel Hill.
This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, but instead a snapshot of some coaches who would make sense for North Carolina’s administration to target in its search for a new head coach.
Here are 7 coaches who would make sense to replace Brown in Chapel Hill:
Jamey Chadwell, Liberty head coach
Chadwell’s second season at Liberty has fallen below expectations, but this is a coach who has won everywhere he’s been. He’s 21-3 at Liberty and went 39-22 at Coastal Carolina. His record at Coastal actually undersells his impact there — after a slow start to his tenure, he won 11 games in back-to-back seasons and then went 9-3 before taking the Liberty job.
Chadwell is certainly familiar with the region and has a long track record of winning games at a high level. He’s also had great quarterback play as Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina) and Kaidon Salter (Liberty) are 2 of the most productive Group-of-5 quarterbacks in recent memory.
Dan Mullen, ESPN analyst
Dan Mullen has been out of the coaching profession for a couple of years now, but he certainly could draw interest from a number of programs this offseason. He’s arguably the best coach in Mississippi State history, as he went 69-46 across 9 seasons in Starkville. His run at Mississippi State included an SEC Coach of the Year award as well.
Mullen’s stint at Florida didn’t go as planned, but it has aged relatively well given Billy Napier’s struggles so far in Gainesville. Mullen spent 4 years at UF, won 10+ games twice and never missed a bowl. Florida also finished in the top 10 of the final CFP rankings 3 times under Mullen. If he’s interested in returning to the sideline, he’d immediately be one of the ACC’s best head coaches.
Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky head coach
Tyson Helton has turned Western Kentucky into a very consistent winner. The Hilltoppers are about to head to their 6th-straight bowl game under Helton’s leadership (although they went 5-7 in the COVID-impacted 2020 season) and are a contender in Conference USA this season.
Helton has not worked in the Carolinas before but he does experience at some big-time programs. Prior to taking over at WKU, he was the offensive coordinator Tennessee for 1 season back in 2018. He also worked at Southern Cal for 2 seasons as the Trojans’ passing game coordinator and QB coach.
Travis Williams, Arkansas defensive coordinator
Travis Williams is maybe a bit too under-the-radar for an ACC head coaching job, but you can’t argue with his results in Fayetteville. Before Williams arrived at Arkansas, the Razorbacks’ defense finished the 2022 season ranked 68th in SP+. Just 2 years later, going into Week 14, Arkansas’ stop unit ranks 32nd nationally in that category.
Williams also has some big-time program experience. His previous stops include roles at Auburn, Miami and Central Florida. A former Auburn standout during his playing career, Williams was born in Columbia, South Carolina.
Glenn Schumann, Georgia defensive coordinator
Glenn Schumann has one of the most unique backgrounds of any college football coach. Schumann didn’t play at the collegiate level, but has spent the first decade-plus of his career learning from Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. His coaching career began back in 2011 when he joined Alabama’s program as a student assistant. When Smart took the Georgia job in 2016, Schumann followed him to be UGA’s linebackers coach.
He’s been Georgia’s primary defensive coordinator since 2022, although he’s had the co-DC title since 2019. The 34-year-old doesn’t have any obvious ties to the region, but the rest of his résumé speaks for itself.
Will Stein, Oregon offensive coordinator
Will Stein appears to be on a meteoric rise to the top of the college football coaching world. The 35-year-old was a high school assistant as recently as 2019 and is now in his second season leading an explosive Oregon offense.
In-between Eugene and Lake Travis High School (Texas), Stein was an assistant coach at UTSA. That’s roughly the extent of his résumé to this point, although he did have a couple of lower-level roles at Louisville and Texas prior to joining the staff at Lake Travis. He’s certainly far from the most experienced coach UNC could hire, but it’s clear that he will be a head coach somewhere soon. UNC would be wise to check in on Stein this offseason.
Garrett Riley, Clemson offensive coordinator
Garrett Riley checks a number of potential boxes for UNC’s search. He’s young (35 years old), has ties to the region and is proven as an offensive coordinator at a very high level. The peak of his career (so far) came a couple of years ago when he led TCU’s offense all the way to the national championship game. He’s spent the past 2 seasons at Clemson to mixed results, although the Tigers have been good overall on offense this season. Clemson is averaging 6.49 yards per play this season — nearly a full yard more than it gained on average the year before Riley’s arrival.
Riley has other ties to the state, too. He was graduate assistant at East Carolina under his brother, Lincoln Riley, back in 2013-14. The Pirates also gave him his first on-field assistant job a year later when he became the program’s outside receivers coach in 2015. He also spent 1 season at App State as its running backs coach in 2019.
Honorable mentions
A couple notes on some other potential candidates:
- Jon Sumrall is not included as he’s only spent 1 season at Tulane and he’s widely-expected to be on the radar for multiple SEC jobs that could open in the next year or so. It would be surprising to see Sumrall take a pitstop in Chapel Hill.
- Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson could certainly be on the radar for this job, but it would be surprising if he was willing to move to a conference (and in-state) foe after spending more than a decade in Winston-Salem.
- Other sitting head coaches like Matt Campbell (Iowa State) and PJ Fleck (Minnesota) could be reasonable targets for North Carolina’s search.
- Ben Johnson is a North Carolina alum who is currently excelling in his role as the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. He could be interviewing for NFL head coaching jobs this offseason, so it’s unclear what his interest would be in a return to the college game.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
