Sadly, the head coach of the Texas Longhorns has announced the sacking of a legendary player because he wants to sign a new deal.

Sadly, the head coach of the Texas Longhorns has announced the sacking of a legendary player because he wants to sign a new deal.

Weeks after his arrest on a felony domestic abuse allegation in Austin, Chris Beard was sacked on Thursday as the head coach of the University of Texas men’s basketball team.

The university has opted to terminate Beard’s contract with immediate effect, according to a statement released on Thursday by vice president and athletic director Chris Del Conte.

According to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Beard, 49, was charged with assault on a family member or household by restricting breath circulation, a third-degree crime, and was placed under involuntary suspension on December 12 without pay. On the day of his arrest, Beard was freed from custody after posting a $10,000 cash bond.

 

The group’s associate head coach, Rodney Terry, has been acting as Jeremy Beard’s suspension coach as the Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team’s interim head coach. Terry will serve as the team’s interim head coach until the end of the season, according to Del Conte.

Del Conte stated, “We’ve been diligently working through this difficult situation.”

Around 12:15 a.m. on December 12, according to the Austin Police Department, police were called in for a disturbance at a residence in Austin. According to a statement from the police, the caller informed them that the disturbance had finished and that one individual had left the house. A woman reported that Beard had assaulted and strangled her when the cops showed up at the house.

Beard’s attorney, Perry Minton, stated in a statement on Thursday, “Crushed at the news he will not be coaching at the University of Texas,” the statement reads.

 

“The university stated at the beginning of Coach Beard’s suspension that they would look into the claims on their own and wouldn’t decide to keep him on staff until they had done so,” Minton stated. Without questioning Coach Beard or his fiancée at all, they went ahead and fired him.

Randi Trew, Beard’s fiancée, stated in a statement that her attorney provided to The Associated Press a few days after Beard was taken into custody that the two had gotten into a “physical struggle” after she broke his glasses out of “frustration.” She went on, “Beard did not strangle me.”

“Chris claims he was defending himself, and I agree with him.

“Chris claims he was defending himself, and I agree with him.  not dispute that,” she uttered. “I don’t think Chris was attempting to purposefully hurt me in any way. I never intended for him to be detained or face legal action. Beard was given the option to either quit or have his contract terminated by the institution, according to a university official. The offer “came as a shock,” according to a letter written by Beard’s attorney, Minton, to James Davis, the university’s vice president of legal affairs, on Thursday.

 

In the letter, Minton stated, “With this, I want to be on record as emphatically stating, and herein memorializing, that Coach Beard has not done anything to violate any provision of his contract with the University of Texas.” “After his arrest, his fiancée withdrew the statement that had been previously published.”

After five seasons as the head coach of Texas Tech University’s men’s basketball team—which he guided to the 2019 N.C.A.A. national championship game—Beard was hired as head coach of the Texas Longhorns in April 2021.

Beard led the men’s basketball teams at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Seminole State College in Seminole, Oklahoma; McMurry University in Abilene, Texas; and Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas, prior to taking over as head coach of the Longhorns. In 1995, Beard earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology—the study of human motion—from the University of Texas.