Now we know why Mack Brown was so anxious to get the word out that he wanted to return to coach North Carolina again next season. It’s because his athletic director Bubba Cunningham didn’t want him to continue coaching the Tar Heels.

The preemptive strike might have been more effective had Brown’s team not gone out and laid a stinker of a rotten egg against Boston College on Saturday.

Who knows if the decision had already been made before the 41-21 loss in Chestnut Hill that zapped all the momentum and good feelings Brown had built up in leading the Tar Heels back from the depths of a 4-game losing streak and the death of wide receiver Tylee Craft?

Even if it had, the listless performance made it a lot easier for Cunningham to put his 73-year-old coach out to pasture. Or in this case, to the golf course with his friend Roy Williams and the mountains with his wife Sally.

UNC made it official on Tuesday, issuing a statement thanking Brown for his dedication to the school and the program while announcing that he won’t be back in 2025. While he’ll coach Saturday’s regular-season finale against NC State, it has yet to be decided whether he’ll stay on to lead the Tar Heels in their upcoming bowl game.

“This was not the perfect time and way in which I imagined going out,” Brown said in a statement, before adding that “no time will ever be the perfect time.”

Maybe not.

But there comes a time in which bowing out with grace becomes necessary. Brown may be the only one on the planet not to realize that the time for him to do so is now.

There’s really nothing left for him to accomplish.

He’s got the national championship ring he won at Texas in 2005. He’s in the Hall of Fame. And he’s fulfilled his long-time desire to return to UNC and gain closure for the regret he’s carried since leaving Chapel Hill the first time around 27 years ago.

Although he didn’t get as much as he could have out of teams led by NFL quarterbacks Sam Howell and Drake Maye during his second chapter in Carolina Blue, Brown did at least succeed in cleaning up the mess left by his predecessor Larry Fedora while leading the Tar Heels to the cusp of national relevance before taking a step back this year.

Now it’s time for him to step away and pass the baton to someone younger and more energetic.

Staying around for another year would only have delayed the inevitable. And in the process, done even more damage to a recruiting effort that has already begun to slip and made the job that much more difficult for the next guy.

So where do the Tar Heels go from here?

Cunningham undoubtedly has a list of names all ready to go. Every athletic director has one in the top drawer of his or her desk, just in case.

The pool of available candidates should be deep.

Because while UNC isn’t a top-tier job, even in the ACC, it has the reputation, the facilities, the location in an area rich with football talent and the financial resources to attract a high level of interest.

The only caveat is that anyone over 50 need not apply.

Nothing against veterans such as UCF’s 59-year-old Gus Malzahn, whose name has already begun to pop up on social media as a potential replacement. As a Boomer, myself, I’m all for old guys getting a shot.

But in this case, UNC doesn’t need to trade in granddad’s old 1970s Cadillac for another vintage land yacht. It needs to upgrade to a turbo-charged Mustang. Or at the very least, a trendy new Rivian. A coach with a vibrant personality and an already-established record for success, whose arrival will inject some badly needed youth and vitality into the program.

The list of potential candidates should include the likes of Jamey Chadwell, 47, who won a Sun Belt Conference title at Coastal Carolina before getting Liberty to the Fiesta Bowl last season. And Jon Sumrall, 42, who has a 32-6 record in 3 seasons at Troy and now Tulane.

Or even Clemson’s whiz kid offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, a rising star who has served his apprenticeship and is ready for his first opportunity to coach a team of his own.

Someone along the lines of the enthusiastic 36-year-old coach UNC brought in from Tulane in December 1987. A kid by the name of Mack Brown. A passionate individual with talent, charisma, a burning desire to succeed and a loyalty to the university that made him want to stay, even when he knew he had to leave.

And who ultimately had to be told it was time to leave when he came back and wanted to stay.