Mack Brown’s North Carolina downfall a result of one key shortcoming

Despite leading the Tar Heels to six consecutive six-win seasons, Brown’s failure to field a competitive defense was his ultimate downfall.

In North Carolina’s most recent run under Brown (he also coached the program from 1988-97), it finished no better than 44th in scoring defense.

That was Brown’s first season back at Chapel Hill. In his last five seasons (2020-24), North Carolina ranked 65th (29.4 points per game), 105th (32.1 points per game), 102nd (30.8 points per game), 75th (27.3 points per game) and 83rd (27.5 points per game) in scoring defense.

The porous Tar Heels defense squandered some outstanding offenses, including in 2022 and 2023, when the team’s attack was led by quarterback Drake Maye, the No. 3 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.

North Carolina went 17-10 those two seasons, finishing each unranked by the College Football Playoff committee and Associated Press voters.

Before Maye, quarterback Sam Howell (2019-21) led the ACC in touchdowns twice (2019, 2020) and yards in 2020, but the Tar Heels only went 15-10 during that span.

In Week 4 this season, North Carolina lost by 20 to James Madison (8-3, 4-3 Sun Belt) despite scoring 50 points.

In its most recent loss, a 41-21 decision to Boston College (6-5, 3-4 ACC) last Saturday, the Eagles gained their most yards (420) against an FBS opponent this season.

Pittsburgh (7-4, 3-4 ACC) and Georgia Tech (7-4, 5-3 ACC) also had their best offensive performances against power-conference competition when facing the Tar Heels.

North Carolina’s next head coach must have a clear plan to fix the defense for the program to break into the conference’s top tier.

If Brown had one, he might still have the job.