The North Carolina Tar Heels brought in plenty of high-profile football recruits during the Mack Brown era, most notably quarterback Sam Howell and Drake Maye. Brown recruited Howell in the pre-NIL era,

The University of North Carolina fired head football coach Mack Brown after periods of underperformance, despite his historical success with the team.

He is 44-32 in his second go-round at North Carolina, nowhere near his initial stint, when he recorded AP top 10 finishes in his final two seasons and went 54-18 in his final six seasons. North Carolina has just one 10-win season since Brown's first final year in 1987, and still hasn't won the ACC since 1980.