North Carolina head coach Mack Brown, fired this week by athletic director Bubba Cunningham, will perhaps be on the Kenan Stadium sideline for the last time, facing rival N.C. State.

Brown as recently as Monday said he planned to return next season, but Bubba Cunningham, the UNC athletic director, informed Brown later Monday that “he will not return as head coach.”

Brown, who won a national championship at Texas in 2005, returned to North Carolina in November 2018 for a second stint as the Tar Heels football coach.