The North Carolina Tar Heels announced they will be parting ways with football coach Mack Brown, becoming the first Power 4 team with a coaching vacancy this winter. While the Tar Heels coaching search is just beginning, there are already preliminary North Carolina coaching candidates emerging.
While North Carolina finished the regular season with six wins, the program realized it was time for a change. Despite Brown’s ability to bring in two blue-chip quarterbacks who reached the NFL – Drake Maye and Sam Howell – the Tar Heels could never experience sustained success under Brown.
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Amid mounting frustrations with the direction of the program, especially the lack of recent success on the recruiting front, the Tar Heels officially decided to make a change. Brown will be allowed to finish out the 2024 season, but the Tar Heels coaching search is on.
Bruce Feldman of The Athletic identified potential North Carolina coaching candidates to replace Brown in 2025, highlighting head coaches at both the Power 4 and Group of 5 levels. However, there’s one coach who the college football insider believes could emerge as the Tar Heels’ top choice.
Feldman identified Tulane Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall as one of the top options to become the next Tar Heels head coach, noting he wouldn’t be surprised if the 43-year-old emerged as North Carolina’s No. 1 target this offseason.
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- Jon Sumrall coaching record: 32-7 overall, 9-3 at Tulane
Sumrall received his first head-coaching gig with the Troy Trojans, taking over a team that went 5-7 in 2021. He immediately turned the Trojans into a 12-win program, landing them in the final top 25 college football rankings following a Cure Bowl victory. A year later, Troy went 11-2 under Sumrall before he left for Tulane to replace Willie Fritz
Tulane went 9-3 in its first season under Sumrall, replicating the success it had under Fritz. The Green Wave also climbed as high as 17th in the College Football Playoff rankings before a loss to Memphis.
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Sumrall, an Alabama native, also had previous stints as a linebackers coach for Ole Miss (2018( and Kentucky (2019-’20) before becoming the Wildcats’ co-defensive coordinator in 2021. As Feldman notes, Sumrall has very strong ties to the South and is well-regarded both for his ability to build strong connections with people and for his understanding and feel for the game.
While Sumrall might not be the most coveted coaching candidate in college football this winter, this could be the perfect time for North Carolina to pursue him before he becomes even more in-demand in 2025. Other potential Tar Heels coaching candidates mentioned by Feldman include Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell, UNLV head coach Barry Odom and Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell.
