Bohls: Texas deserves credit for handling Chris Beard's firing correctly

• Texas handled a sensitive situation with dignity and didn't rush to judgment before firing basketball coach Chris Beard after his arrest for family violence.
• The school didn't fire Beard for being arrested so much as it let him go because he physically harmed a woman.
• By firing him for cause, Texas saved in excess of $30 million because it says it owes Beard nothing and suspended him without pay on Dec. 12.

Texas did the right thing.

Slowly. Ever so slowly. Maybe even too slowly, in some minds.

But ultimately the university took the only path it could — the correct path — and fired men’s basketball coach Chris Beard on Thursday for tarnishing the Longhorns' brand with his Dec. 12 arrest on a family violence charge.

That’s what this came down to. Hitting a woman is never acceptable. Beard should know that.

And bottom line, Texas always wants to protect the brand at all costs. It could ill afford to look the other way and try to dismiss what happened in this #MeToo era of justice, healing and female empowerment. But athletic director Chris Del Conte and UT President Jay Hartzell didn't rush to judgment, instead handling an unenviable situation with as much patience and class as they could.

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Beard’s conduct in striking a woman was clearly unbecoming and grounds for dismissal for cause. His lack of contrition only made it easier for Texas to make this decision.

Texas claims it isn’t offering him a red cent because he was in breach of his seven-year, $35 million contract with his unethical conduct, and the school could save more than $30 million by parting ways with him and not paying him anything since Dec 12, when he was suspended without pay. 

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Maybe Perry Minton, Beard’s lawyer, can rattle all the sabers he wants and try to intimidate Texas into honoring at least part of the coach’s financial contract. But Texas has the high ground in this case, and there’s no way Beard would ever want this dirty laundry paraded publicly in front of a jury. That would only inflict more damage to his career and raise extra concerns for his next potential employer about his character.

The state's flagship school couldn’t afford to overlook Beard’s transgressions, even if charges are eventually dropped, as I pretty much expect them to be since Beard’s fiancée probably won’t testify against him.

But the damage has been done.

Beard wasn’t fired because of the charges. He was fired because Texas believed he physically harmed a woman.

Beard, who has been silent for almost a month after the violent altercation Dec. 12, probably took the L in the court of public opinion as soon as Longhorn Nation had to agonizingly hear that Randi Trew — Beard’s girlfriend of six years and his fiancée — had told Austin police that the coach had attempted to strangle her, that he bit her, caused her abrasions and made her fear for her safety.

And neither he nor his lawyer offered enough in terms of explanations to save his skin. So 24 long, suffering days after Beard’s arrest, the Longhorns finally and appropriately cut the cord. They are likely to begin a national search for his successor sooner than later.

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Rodney Terry, the acting head coach who came back to Texas with Beard, will continue to serve in that role and deserves a big raise above his current $500,000 salary. He’s probably a long shot to get the job full time unless he takes this very talented team to, say, the Final Four because his 10-year track record as a head coach at UTEP and Fresno State leaves a lot to be desired.

The hope is Texas gets the right coach for the job, someone with impeccable character and integrity, for a program that was taking off under Beard and that both Beard and Trew find some peace and forgiveness through all this pain and heartache.

Hopefully, a remorseful Beard can reclaim his name and reputation, he and his fiancée find resolution and peace together or separately and have calm, productive lives. Beard’s coaching career hangs in the balance, and it’s way too soon to declare that it is finished or just in a momentary lull. We all know he’ll have a lot of work to do.

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Trew did soften her original version in the later days, saying Beard didn’t actually strangle her and didn’t want to harm her. She said his angry reaction to their argument might have come in self-defense. But does that really matter when a person scares the hell out of his partner, strikes her in any fashion, makes her feel scared enough to notify the authorities and brings these kinds of headlines to the Texas program?

Sources within the university and outside say Beard had offered Texas very little in his own defense that would prove satisfactory. The school’s higher administration discussed firing Beard immediately for cause the day after he was arrested but chose to suspend him without pay and not make a knee-jerk reaction.

I’d applaud Texas for the way it has handled this sad situation, neither overreacting in quick fashion or making the wrong decision and sticking with one terrific basketball coach.

That said, the clock was ticking. It wasn’t very fair that the basketball team and the rest of the staff weren’t given much information at all while the university let this play out. But information was hard to come by.

Texas hasn’t exactly showered itself with glory in the past over its handling of women’s track coach Bev Kearney and football offensive coordinator Major Applewhite during their sexual controversies at the school. And it has allowed current Longhorns freshman guard Arterio Morris to play this entire season during an ongoing investigation and pending charges in Denton County for his own domestic violence case. That’s hardly the best optics, either.

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But Texas took the only recourse it really had Thursday and cut loose arguably one of the best five coaches in all of college basketball. Beard’s one helluva coach and hopefully he learns and grows from this.

Same goes for Texas, which conducted itself well in this sordid situation and for one of the few times chose to control the narrative. The Beard-Texas pairing was a match made in heaven, but it was all too brief and now comes to a painful and premature conclusion.

Meanwhile, the spring semester begins anew on Monday, Texas can take a breath, and maybe a slightly relieved Longhorns team and its anxious fan base can now focus on making the most out of a blemished but still promising season and doing the right things.