North Carolina announced Tuesday morning that it would be parting ways with Mack Brown.

The news comes at the end of a somewhat disappointing end to Brown’s tenure, as the Tar Heels are just 6-5 in 2024. However, Brown’s successor will have big shoes to fill – he is the winningest coach in Carolina history and led the program to bowl games in six consecutive seasons to conclude his second stint in Chapel Hill.

This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but instead provides a snapshot of some of the coaches the North Carolina administration could meaningfully utilize in its search for a new head coach.

Here are seven coaches who would make sense to replace Brown in Chapel Hill:

Jamey Chadwell, Liberty’s head coach

Chadwell’s second season at Liberty has fallen below expectations, but this is a coach who has won everywhere he has gone. He is 21-3 at Liberty and went 39-22 at Coastal Carolina. His track record at Coastal actually negates his impact there: After a slow start to his tenure, he won 11 games in consecutive seasons and went 9-3 before taking the Liberty job.

Chadwell is certainly familiar with the region and has a long track record of winning competitions at a high level. He has also had some great quarterback play, as Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina) and Kaidon Salter (Liberty) are two of the most productive Group-of-5 quarterbacks in recent memory.

Dan Mullen, ESPN analyst

Dan Mullen has been out of coaching for a few years, but he could certainly draw interest from a number of programs this season. He may be the best coach in Mississippi State history, as he went 69-46 for nine seasons in Starkville. His run at Mississippi State also included an SEC Coach of the Year award.

Mullen’s stay in Florida didn’t go as planned, but it’s gone relatively well considering Billy Napier’s struggles so far in Gainesville. Mullen spent 4 years at UF, winning more than 10 games twice and never missing a bowl. Florida also finished in the top 10 of the final CFP rankings three times under Mullen. If he is interested in returning to the sidelines, he would immediately be one of the ACC’s top head coaches.

Western Kentucky head coach Tyson Helton

Tyson Helton has turned Western Kentucky into a very consistent winner. The Hilltoppers are about to go to their sixth straight bowl game under Helton’s leadership (although they went 5-7 in the COVID-affected 2020 season) and are a contender in Conference USA this season.

Helton hasn’t worked in the Carolinas before, but he does have experience at some major programs. Before taking over at WKU, he served as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator for one season in 2018. He also spent two seasons at Southern Cal as the Trojans’ passing game coordinator and QB coach.

Travis Williams, Arkansas defensive coordinator

Travis Williams may be a little under the radar for an ACC head coaching job, but there’s no arguing with his results in Fayetteville. Before Williams arrived at Arkansas, the Razorbacks’ defense finished the 2022 season ranked 68th in SP+. Just two years later, entering Week 14, Arkansas’ stopping unit ranks 32nd nationally in that category.

Williams also has deep program experience. His previous stops include roles at Auburn, Miami and Central Florida. A former Auburn standout during his playing career, Williams was born in Columbia, South Carolina.

Glenn Schumann, Georgia defensive coordinator

Glenn Schumann has one of the most unique backgrounds of any college football coach. Schumann didn’t play at the collegiate level, but spent the first decade of his career learning from Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. His coaching career began in 2011 when he joined the Alabama program as a student assistant. When Smart took the Georgia job in 2016, Schumann followed him as UGA’s linebackers coach.

He has been Georgia’s top defensive coordinator since 2022, although he has held the co-DC title since 2019. The 34-year-old has no apparent ties to the region, but the rest of his CV speaks for itself.

Will Stein, Oregon offensive coordinator

Will Stein appears to be on a meteoric rise to the top of the college football coaching world. The 35-year-old was only a high school assistant in 2019 and is now in his second season leading an explosive offense at Oregon.

Between Eugene and Lake Travis High School (Texas), Stein was an assistant coach at UTSA. That’s about the extent of his resume so far, though he had some lower-level positions at Louisville and Texas before joining Lake Travis’ staff. He’s certainly not the most experienced coach UNC could hire, but it’s clear he’ll be a head coach somewhere soon. UNC would be wise to check in on Stein this offseason.

Garrett Riley, Clemson offensive coordinator

Garrett Riley checks a number of possible boxes for UNC’s search. He is young (35 years old), has ties to the region and has proven himself as an offensive coordinator at a very high level. The highlight of his career (so far) came a few years ago when he led TCU’s offense all the way to the national championship game. He spent the past two seasons at Clemson and had mixed results, although the Tigers were generally good on offense this season. Clemson is averaging 6.49 yards per play this season – almost a full yard more than average the year before Riley’s arrival.

Riley also has other ties to the state. He was a graduate assistant at East Carolina under his brother, Lincoln Riley, in 2013-14. The Pirates also gave him his first on-field assistant job a year later, when he became the program’s outside receivers coach in 2015. He also spent one season at App State as running backs coach in 2019.

Honorable mentions

A few notes on some other potential candidates:

• Jon Sumrall is not included as he spent just one season at Tulane and is widely expected to be on the radar for multiple SEC jobs that could come up in the coming year. It would be surprising to see Sumrall make a pit stop in Chapel Hill.
• Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson could certainly be on the radar for this job, but it would be surprising if he were willing to move to a conference (and in-state) foe after more than a decade in Winston -Salem.
• Other incumbent head coaches such as Matt Campbell (Iowa State) and PJ Fleck (Minnesota) could be reasonable targets for North Carolina’s search.