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.”

Mack Brown came back for this season to show, at age 73, he was still the right man for the job. In some ways, he was. But it was impossible to look at the results and want more of this.

Will North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham target a sitting head coach, like Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, or a well-regarded coordinator from a major program, like Georgia’s Glenn Schumann?