Texas Basketball: 4 early coaching candidates to replace Chris Beard
Rodney Terry, Associate Texas head coach
An obvious answer to the Longhorns’ coaching search would definitely be the current acting head coach. Terry has served as an assistant coach on Beard’s staff since the former Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach first started at Texas in the spring of 2021.
Terry was also an assistant coach at Texas under former head coach Rick Barnes from 2002-2011.
Thus, Terry is familiar with the rest of Texas’ staff and some of the bigger recruiting targets for the Longhorns 2024 class, along with the culture at the university going back a couple of decades. He also has valued relationships built with Texas’ two five-star signees in the 2023 recruiting class in Duncanville forward Ron Holland and Southern California Academy combo guard AJ Johnson.
It’s also worth noting that Terry has plenty of head coaching experience at the Division I level in college hoops. After serving as an assistant coach on the Longhorns staff for nearly a decade, he got his first shot as a Division I head coach with the Fresno State Bulldogs.
Terry was Fresno State’s head coach from 2011-2018, posting a record of 126-108 (.538 winning percentage). Although Fresno State never made it to the Big Dance during Terry’s time as the head coach, the Bulldogs did finish with three straight 20-win seasons under his guidance.
Following the end of his run as Fresno State’s head coach in 2018, Terry took the same position with the UTEP Miners ahead of the start of the 2018-19 campaign. Terry got off to a rocky start at UTEP, posting a record of 8-21 in his first year at the helm.
And Terry got mixed results in the last two seasons at UTEP, posting 29-27 during in the last couple of years with the Miners.
All in all, for Terry to be considered a top candidate for this job, Texas would have to have some major successes on the court and on the recruiting trail in the next few months. I think Terry would have to take Texas at least to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight this coming postseason for his candidacy to be very real following the 2022-23 season.