CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Over the past five years, every now and then, Mack Brown would ask Gene Chizik a version of the same question.
"Are you ready to coach again?"
Brown asked it four years ago, before he got back into coaching at North Carolina. At the time, Chizik told him he was not ready just yet. Then in spring 2021, when Chizik had a few opportunities come his way, Brown told him, "You've got to decide if you want to coach again."
Chizik had a simple reply.
"I do," he told Brown.