Chris Beard moving from Texas Tech to Texas

Update: Texas makes it official that Beard is their new head coach.

Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Chris Beard will move right down US-183 and contribute to the same state pension plan if he chooses, as he is now the new head coach of the Texas Longhorns as first reported by Jeff Goodman of Stadium.

You don’t see a lot of in-state moves by coaches between two schools in the same conference, but the money and opportunity here for Beard must have been too much to pass up when Shaka Smart left for Marquette. UT couldn’t afford to be left out in the cold in national coaching search circles, especially with the North Carolina job now open.

Beard will likely get a massive raise and better infrastructure to support a program that needs it. He was 112-55 at Tech, a notoriously tough place to win, and got the Red Raiders to the national championship game in 2019. Though he may be persona non grata in Lubbock for the move, the native Texan (he’s from The Woodlands outside of the Metroplex area) has to imagine making the Longhorns a perennial power with his ability to recruit.