Texas Basketball: Lofty figures for Chris Beard’s contract released
The details for the contract of the newly hired Texas basketball head coach Chris Beard were released the day after the hiring was announced. On April 2, the salary figures for the former Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Beard were dropped, and it is surely a sizable contract. Texas was going to have to break open the wallets for Beard if they wanted to snag him from Lubbock.
Beard will be making nearly $1 million more on average annually with this contract with the Longhorns compared to his base salary during his last year with the Red Raiders. According to a 247Sports report (confirmed by multiple sources), Beard is set to get $35 over the course of seven years in this contract to become the Longhorns next head basketball coach.
Of that contract, reportedly around 70 percent will be guaranteed for Beard. In his first year at the helm at Texas head coach, Beard will make around $5 million. And while his contract amounts to around an annual average of $5 million for his salary, incentives could carry that figure well above that number.
Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt apparently offered Beard a lifetime extension, similar to what Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self got entering the weekend, but he obviously didn’t wind up taking it. Beard instead will get what looks to be a minimum of $5 million annually, which carries him into the late 2020s.
The hire of Chris Beard to become the next Texas basketball head coach
On the morning of April 2, it was announced that Beard would become the next Longhorns men’s hoops head coach. He will be replacing the now former sixth-year Texas head coach Shaka Smart. Back on March 26, news broke that Smart would take over for Steve Wojciechowski as the next Marquette Golden Eagles head coach.
Beard spent five years as the Texas Tech head coach prior to landing the Texas job, and one with Arkansas-Little Rock. During his six years in total as a Division I college hoops head coach between his time with UALR and Texas Tech, he registered a record of 142-60 (.703 winning percentage).
He is also a two-time Big 12 Coach of the Year award winner and the 2018-19 AP Coach of the Year. Beard took the Texas Tech program to the heights of a respected national contender year in and year out in his last five years in Lubbock.
Next. 3 reasons why Chris Beard was the perfect hire. dark
Texas wound up finishing up the 2020-21 season with a record of 19-8 (11-6 Big 12) under Smart’s direction. While they did win the Big 12 Tournament crown for the first time in program history, the season ended on a largely disappointing note following the early exit in March Madness in a loss to the 14-seed Abilene Christian Wildcats in the Round of 64.