Why is Chris Beard at Ole Miss? Rebels coach fired at Texas after arrest, assault charge

Few active coaches in men’s college basketball are as accomplished as Chris Beard.

Though he had been involved in the sport in some form since 1991, Beard introduced himself to much of the country five years ago, in 2019, when he was named the Associated Press National Coach of the Year and led Texas Tech to its first-ever Final Four. From there, he was hired at Texas, where he became one of the sport’s highest-paid coaches and guided the Longhorns to a top-10 national ranking early in his second season at the school.

On Wednesday night, though, he’ll be in a very different place than many would have imagined only a short time ago. When Alabama visits Ole Miss tonight at the SJB Pavilion, Beard won’t be in Austin or Lubbock, but roaming the opposing sideline in his first year as the Rebels’ coach.

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How Beard ended up in Oxford, Mississippi is the result of one of the more rapid and unexpected descents down the college basketball coaching ladder in recent memory, while his hiring at Ole Miss stands as one of the quicker turnarounds for a coach fired after an off-court incident.

Here’s everything you need to know about Beard’s coaching career, his exit at Texas and his arrival at Ole Miss:

Chris Beard coaching career

After starting in various low-level coaching jobs, Beard got what amounted to his first big break in coaching in 2001, when he was hired on the staff of the legendary Bob Knight at Texas Tech. He spent 10 seasons there — seven under Knight and the final three under Knight’s son, Pat — before the younger Knight was fired in 2011.

From there, he was a head coach at the Division II, Division III and semi-professional level before breaking back into the Division I ranks as Little Rock’s head coach in 2015. He made the Trojans an instant winner, orchestrating a dramatic turnaround in which they went 30-5 — more than doubling their win total from the previous season — and upset Purdue in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

After just one year, and following a 19-day stint at UNLV, Beard returned to Texas Tech, this time as its head coach. By just his second season, they won 27 games and made the Elite Eight. The following year, they had even more in store, winning a program-record 31 games, making the Final Four and, once there, coming within seconds of winning a championship before falling in overtime to Virginia in the national title game.

Texas Tech returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2021, the next year the event was held, but in the weeks after it was eliminated, Beard was hired as the head coach at Big 12 rival Texas, his alma mater, where he worked as a student manager and assistant.

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Chris Beard assault charge

As he had anywhere else in his career, Beard found immediate success at Texas, winning 22 games and earning a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament his first year. In the second season of a guaranteed seven-year contract that paid him $5 million annually, he led the Longhorns to a 7-1 start and a No. 7 national ranking, a run that included wins against a pair of top-10 opponents.

Whatever promise he had exhibited early in his tenure at Texas came to a sudden and tumultuous halt.

Early on the morning of Dec. 12, 2022, Beard was arrested after allegedly strangling his fiancée at his home. He was charged with assault by strangulation/suffocation, a third-degree felony in Texas that carried a possible punishment of two to 10 years in prison.

In an affidavit, his fiancée, with whom he had been in a relationship for six years, told police the altercation began when she approached Beard in the guest bedroom of the house and, after he ignored her, she took his eyeglasses from his hand and broke them. About 10 minutes later, she said Beard slapped the eyeglasses from her face, threw her to the ground from the bed, bit her and choked her from behind for five seconds.

Officers noted his fiancée had a bite mark on her right arm and an abrasion to her right temple, among other visible injuries. Beard told police at the scene that he had audio recordings of the incident that would show he was not the primary aggressor, but he refused to share them.

"Coach Beard is 100% innocent of these charges,” Beard’s attorney, Perry Minton, said at the time. “He should have never been arrested. The complainant wants him released immediately and all charges dismissed. It is truly inconceivable."

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Why was Chris Beard fired at Texas?

The day of his arrest, Beard was suspended by Texas indefinitely and without pay, with associate head coach Rodney Terry appointed the interim head coach in Beard’s absence.

According to a report from the Austin American-Statesman, Texas officials invited Beard and his representatives to lay out a case for why they should not fire him in the days after his arrest.

A clause in his contract with Texas stated that “Any conduct (a) that the University administration reasonably determines is clearly unbecoming to a Head Coach and reflects poorly on the University, the Program, or The University of Texas System; or (b) resulting in a criminal charge being brought against Head Coach involving a felony, or any crime involving theft, dishonesty, or moral turpitude.”

On Jan. 5, about three weeks after his arrest, Beard was formally fired by the university. According to documents obtained by the American-Statesman under the Freedom of Information Act, Beard was offered the chance to resign, but refused to do so.

A source told CBS Sports that Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte was not the one who ultimately decided to fire Beard. Rather, that choice was made by others in power at the school.

"I am concerned that the University of Texas has made a terrible decision against the interest of the University, based on Twitter feeds and editorials — and not the facts concerning a truly innocent man," Minton said in a statement released after Beard’s firing. "The University has violated their agreement with the coach and we are devastated."

Texas rejected the premise of Minton’s argument.

"Your letter this morning reveals that Mr. Beard does not understand the significance of the behavior he knows he engaged in, or the ensuing events that impair his ability to effectively lead our program,'' Jim Davis, the university's vice president of legal affairs, wrote in a termination letter to Minton. “This lack of self-awareness is yet another failure of judgement that makes Mr. Beard unfit to serve as a head coach at our university.”

Chris Beard assault charge dismissal

On Dec. 23, 2022, in the time between Beard’s suspension and his eventual firing, Randi Trew, Beard’s fiancée, released a statement in which she asserted she didn’t believe Beard was trying to harm her and that she didn’t want him to be arrested.

"Chris and I are deeply saddened that we have brought negative attention upon our family, friends, and the University of Texas, among others," Trew said. "As Chris’ fiancée and biggest supporter, I apologize for the role I played in this unfortunate event. I realize that my frustration, when breaking his glasses, initiated a physical struggle between Chris and myself. Chris did not strangle me, and I told that to law enforcement that evening.

"Chris has stated that he was acting in self-defense, and I do not refute that. I do not believe Chris was trying to intentionally harm me in any way. It was never my intent to have him arrested or prosecuted. We appreciate everyone’s support and prayers during this difficult time."

Though Trew did not address why she made the emergency call or any of the injuries she suffered that night, her statement proved to be consequential in Beard’s case.

On Feb. 15, more than a month after Beard had been fired, the strangulation charge was dismissed. Travis County District Attorney José Garza said that based on the evidence of the case and Trew’s desire not to prosecute, he was unlikely to get a conviction.

“When a survivor calls law enforcement, they just want whatever is happening to stop,” Jeana Lungwitz, a clinical law professor at the University of Texas and founder and director of the school’s Domestic Violence Clinic, said to the Associated Press. “They often don’t want bad things to happen to their partners. They don’t want them to lose their job. They don’t want them to go to jail. They are scared and just want them to stop in that moment.”

Chris Beard Ole Miss hiring

With Beard no longer facing the threat of criminal charges and prison time, he became an enticing option for a school in need of a new basketball coach and willing to withstand the backlash that would come with bringing him aboard.

He didn’t take long to find a suitor.

On March 13, almost three weeks after firing coach Kermit Davis, Ole Miss announced it had hired Beard. The decision came after Rebels athletic director Keith Carter said the school conducted “due diligence” and spoke to “a number of individuals on and off the court.”

At his introductory news conference, Beard sidestepped questions about his arrest, noting that he and Trew, who are reportedly no longer engaged, had “agreed not to talk about the details.” Beard added that “much of what was reported is not accurate.”

"That's not me," Beard said. "That's not who I am. It's not who I've been. It's not who I will be."

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Chris Beard record

Over the course of his Division I head-coaching career, Beard has amassed a record of 190-81, with six NCAA Tournament appearances.

This season at Ole Miss, Beard’s team is 19-8 overall and 6-8 in the SEC heading into the matchup with Alabama, putting it on the NCAA Tournament bubble. It’s a rapid improvement for the program, which went 54-79 in Davis’ final four seasons.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Why is Chris Beard at Ole Miss? Rebels basketball coach fired at Texas