These are really, really difficult decisions and choices, and I feel really badly and a bit disappointed that Coach Brown and I
couldn’t agree on how to proceed forward. You know, what Mack and Sally have brought to this community, what
Mack has done for Carolina Football and for the University of North Carolina, his first trip here, his second time coming
back. I asked him to come back. He’s done everything and more that what we’ve asked. Our facilities are better. Our fundraising has been better. We have
better staff. We have better coaching salaries, and all of that was because he’s so good at doing all those things.
We’ve had some inconsistencies. We had a lot of ambiguity about what our future looked like, and we needed clarity. This year in particular, we were up and down. We had all the things — the James
Madison post-game thing — and I was really hopeful that he and I could agree what the future would be and when we would make that decision and go
forward. But ultimately we couldn’t. I said that we’re going to have a different coach next year, and we couldn’t agree about how.
A soon as I made that decision, he wanted to tell the team, which was the unfortunate timing. I was really hoping that we could do this on Friday. They
love Coach Brown. They love Sally. They’d be fired up. They could give us some momentum going into (NC) State,
but they would have clarity as well. I just can’t thank him enough for what he’s done, he’s a big part of our community
and a big part of our history. Those are really difficult decisions that you have to make from time to time. Again, I can’t
thank him enough for what he’s done, and we’ll move on and find another great coach.”
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