North Carolina hosts NC State in Mack Brown’s home finale

In most cases, a regular-season finale between two teams with a combined 11 wins wouldn’t be too compelling.That’s hardly the case on Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C., where North Carolina’s Mack Brown coaches his final home game against rival North Carolina State.The university announced Tuesday that Brown, 73, will not return next season, despite Brown telling reporters on Monday he planned to be back in 2025.”While this was not the perfect time and way in which I imagined going out, no time will ever be the perfect time,” Brown said in a statement. “We’ve had the chance to coach and mentor some great young men, and we’ll miss having the opportunity to do that in the future. … We want to send these seniors out right and I hope our fans will show up Saturday to do the same.”In addition to the emotionally charged atmosphere at Kenan Stadium for the host Tar Heels (6-5, 3-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), the Wolfpack (5-6, 2-5) desperately need a victory to become bowl eligible.A loss to North Carolina would mark just the third losing season for the Wolfpack since Dave Doeren took over in 2013. NC State is coming off a 30-29 defeat at Georgia Tech in which the Yellow Jackets regained the lead with 22 seconds left on an 18-yard run by Aaron Philo.

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