Report: Rodney Terry agrees to five-year contract as Texas coach
The Texas Longhorns have the new leader of their program, as it was reported on Monday morning that Rodney Terry would have the interim tag removed and would now become the full-time head coach. Following that report, contract details for Terry have become public now.
Per Jon Rothstein, Terry and the Longhorns have agreed to a five-year contract for the job. The deal will pay Terry $3 million annually, according to Rothstein.
An assistant coach at Texas from 2002-11, Terry returned back to Austin when Chris Beard accepted the job to be the head coach of his alma mater. Terry served one full season under Beard but had to step into the interim head coach role in Year 2, following Beard’s arrest and then firing following an alleged domestic violence incident.
After Terry took over, the Longhorns did not miss a beat as a team. Texas was 7-1 when Terry had to take over the team and went on to finish 23-8 overall and 12-6 in the Big 12. The Longhorns then went on to win three games and take the Big 12 Tournament crown. Texas was just a mere matter of minutes away from the Final Four on Sunday, but let a double-digit lead slip away in the second half and Miami ended its season.
“He is the primary reason that team stayed together,” Bobby Burton of Inside Texas said of Terry. “I don’t think you can discount just how difficult a task that was given the circumstances surrounding Chris Beard’s firing.
“The whole season could have gone sideways but it didn’t. He held that group together.”
Prior to becoming the head coach at Texas, Terry had 10 seasons of head coaching experience. Terry was the head coach of Fresno State from 2011-18, posting a 126-108 record. The Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament once and the NIT once.
Following his stretch at Fresno State, Terry spent three seasons coaching at UTEP. Terry went 37-48 in three seasons with the miners before then accepting the job on Beard’s staff.
“It was all about this team, man, and I enjoyed every single day of this journey with this group,” Terry said after Texas’ loss to Miami. “I’m going to really miss — I’m going to really miss working with this group. It was never about me. It was always about these guys. I love these guys.”