Report: Ole Miss met with Chris Beard on Monday regarding head coaching job

Chris Beard is going to be a hot name in future coaching searches. After being dismissed by Texas, many assumed it would only be a matter of time before he once again became a candidate after his domestic violence charge was dropped. However, not many expected it to be as soon as this.

That’s because, per reports from OMSpirit, Beard met with Ole Miss today regarding their head coaching vacancy. After firing Kermit Davis at the end of last month, it appears the Rebels are ready to make a run quickly at a coach like Beard, regardless of any baggage that may be coming with him.

FIRST REPORT: #OleMiss meeting today with Texas’ Chris Beard about basketball coaching vacancy https://t.co/w8InpxpaJd pic.twitter.com/b8OwNuGeXv

— OMSpiritOn3 (@OMSpiritOn3) March 6, 2023

In eight years as a head coach, Beard has a career record of 244-171 in three stops. He spent one year at Little Rock, five with Texas Tech, and the last two at Texas. That record includes a 29-13 mark while in Austin where both of his Longhorn teams earned rankings in the Top-5 of the AP Poll over the course of the year.

Of the seven seasons he completed, Beard’s teams made the NCAA Tournament five times. He also has a Final Four and National Championship appearance on his resume with the Red Raiders.

With all that said, his career took a dramatic turn following his arrest in December. It involved an incident that occurred with his fiancee. Later that month, though, she retracted her statement and DA Jose Garza dropped the charges in February.

With the situation involving Mark Adams back in Lubbock, though, Pete Thamel said on Outside The Lines this afternoon that remaining in the state of Texas and in the Big 12 is also still a possibility for Beard.

“It’s difficult to imagine a post-Mark Adams Texas Tech without Chris Beard’s name at least being brought up in conversation, vetted, bandied about. He’s one of the most popular coaches in school history,” said Thamel. “Obviously, what he was accused of doing — and the charges were dropped — is a very serious thing. There would be a lot of lawyers a university would have to go through to approve a hiring of Beard. But him being seemingly on the market now? Ole Miss officials are vetting Beard; they have a job open right now. I’m not saying it’s inevitable he’s going to be hired or imminent he’s going to be hired. But that name looms large over Texas Tech right now.”

We’ll have to wait and see how several of these coaching searches develop before we know how serious of a candidate that Beard is in any of them. Even so, it seems early on that he could be back in the coaching ranks before we know it.