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.

For the third time since becoming North Carolina’s athletics director in November 2011, Bubba Cunningham has a head football coaching opening to fill. On Monday, Cunningham informed Mack Brown ... well for UNC the first time, with Brown in 1988.