Ole Miss Officially Hires Ex Longhorns Coach Chris Beard

Former Texas Longhorns coach Chris Beard has finalized a deal to become the next head coach at Ole Miss.

Matt Galatzan | Mar 13, 2023

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Just a little over two months after being fired by the Texas Longhorns due to third-degree felony charges, Chris Beard has officially been named the next head coach for the Ole Miss Rebels, the program announced Monday.

“At each stop in his career, Coach Beard has proven to be a program builder and a dynamic leader whose teams exhibit relentless effort,” Ole Miss by Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Keith Carter said in a statement. “He is a tireless recruiter and develops talent to reach their greatest potential. He has coached at multiple levels of college basketball and has competed for championships at every school. Simply put, Coach Beard is a winner, and Ole Miss Basketball’s best years are ahead of us under his leadership.”

Beard has an outstanding overall record in his head coaching career (237-98), but he was fired from Texas after domestic violence charges were brought against the coach in December of last year.

The charges, however, were later dropped by the Travis County district attorney.

In replacement of Beard, the Longhorns turned to interim head coach Rodney Terry, who did nothing but excel, leading the Longhorns to a Big 12 tournament championship and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

LonghornsCountry.com has already made the case for the Horns to make Terry the permanent replacement for Beard.

But while he is under heavy consideration, a final decision has yet to be made.

Either way, the cloud of Beard is now finally moving away from Austin, and the Longhorns can begin to move on themselves and focus on finding their next permanent head coach.

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Published Mar 13, 2023

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.