Mack Brown

William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American college football coach.

Brown was born as the middle of three boys (brothers Mel and Watson) on August 27, 1951, in Cookeville, Tennessee.

He was born into a Church of Christ family.

During his teenage years, he attended Putnam County High School.

Brown's family had a long history with football.

His grandfather, Eddie Watson, was an athlete at Tennessee Tech and a coach at Putnam County High School for more than three decades.

His father, Melvin Brown, was also a coach and an administrator.

Mack's older brother Watson also coached, and was the head football coach at a total of six Division I football schools, ending his career with their hometown school, Tennessee Tech.

In his time playing for the Vanderbilt Commodores, he played for Bill Pace and rushed 82 times for 364 yards and three touchdowns, as well as catching seven passes for 50 yards and a touchdown during the 1970 season.

Brown then transferred to Florida State University.

Brown played for Florida State under head coach Larry Jones.

At Florida State he had 31 rushing attempts for 98 yards and 10 catches for 76 yards with no touchdowns in the 1972 season.

Lettering twice as a running back for the Seminoles, he started his coaching career as a student coach after five knee surgeries ended his career prematurely.

Brown's first experience coaching came as a student coach of wide receivers at Florida State, a position he held in 1973 and 1974.

Mack attended Vanderbilt University before attending Florida State University and graduating in 1974.

From 1975 to 1977, he was the wide receivers coach at Southern Miss.

This was followed by a one-year stint as wide receivers coach at Memphis State.

He later received a graduate degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1976.

During his undergraduate years, Brown was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Brown was a three-sport star at Putnam County High School, playing football, basketball and baseball.

After his senior season, he won All-State as well as Prep All-America honors and was selected one of the nation's top running backs by Scholastic Magazine his senior year.

The Tennessean selected him as the state player of the year.

He accepted a football scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where his brother Watson Brown was the starting quarterback.

For the 1979 season, he joined the staff of Iowa State, again as a wide receivers coach, before a promotion to offensive coordinator.

The team scored 108 more points that year than they had in 1979.

In 1980, after going 3–8 the year prior, Iowa State improved their record to 6–5 in large part due to running back Dwayne Crutchfield (1,312 yards with 11 TD) and the rest of Brown's offense.

In 1981, the team finished with a 5–5–1 record, despite starting out with a record of 5–1–1.

RB Dwayne Crutchfield was again a key focal point in Brown's offense and ran for 1,189 yards with 17 TD.

He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, when he left Chapel Hill to become head coach for the University of Texas.

Brown's Longhorns defeated Red River Showdown conference rival Oklahoma in 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2013.

Brown coached the Longhorns to victory against the top-ranked USC Trojans at the 2006 Rose Bowl game to cap off an undefeated season, win a second consecutive Rose Bowl, and the national championship in what has been considered the greatest game in college football history.

In 2006, he was awarded the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award for "Coach of the Year".

Brown achieved his 200th career win during the 2008 season, making him the first Texas coach to reach that mark.

He resigned after the 2013 Alamo Bowl, leaving as the second-winningest coach in program history (11 wins behind Darrell Royal).

Since returning to Chapel Hill, Brown has become Carolina's all-time winningest coach, passing Dick Crum for most wins in program history.

As of 2024, Brown also has the most career wins among active NCAA Division I FBS football coaches.

In 2018, Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Two days after Carolina fired Larry Fedora in November 2018, Brown was announced to return as the Tar Heels' head coach after a five-year hiatus from coaching, which he spent as an ESPN analyst.

Prior to his head coach positions at Texas and North Carolina, Brown was head coach for Appalachian State and later, Tulane.

He is credited with revitalizing the North Carolina and Texas football programs.