Beard was an assistant coach at Tech for 10 years under Bobby Knight and Pat Knight. He knows and loves the college town atmosphere of Lubbock. After Tubby left Tech, our AD immediately called Beard, who had just accepted the UNLV job, and asked Beard if they could meet the following day to discuss him taking the Tech job. During that conversation Beard asked our AD, "Can we discuss it tonight?" So our AD flew to Las Vegas that afternoon and Beard took the job without a firm salary commitment. That said, Beard is paid very well, and with the current oil and gas BOOM in the Permian Basin, Tech alumni are feeling very, very flush. No school will money-whip Tech. Not even UT.
Best part about Beard is that he knows how to connect with Tech fans, especially the students. He does a tongue-in-cheek fireside chat show (almost) every week featuring a Tech player. He has also done a few fireside chats live at Chimeys where he takes student questions, autographs weird things, etc. This week's episode features Tariq Owens. It's definitely not the best episode but Tech fans and students eat this stuff up!
Obviously coaches make surprise job changes but Beard seems really happy in Lubbock and his statements about the Tech job sound very similar to Gary Patterson at TCU, so I don't see him leaving anytime soon. But if he does leave, it will be because he put Tech on the national basketball map and I'm cool with that. Cheers Clones!
