Bruce Pearl is fully supportive of Ole Miss hiring Chris Beard as its next head coach.

Pearl weighed in on the move with Trey Wallace on an Outkick podcast one day after Beard was introduced in Oxford. Beard’s hire drew immediate criticism because he was fired at Texas following a domestic incident with his fiancee in a case that was later dropped, but not before police reported graphic details.

“Great hire, great coach, great person,” Pearl said. “God bless him, we all make mistakes, and we all deserve some grace. But he’s a really good man, a really good coach and belongs back in the game.”

Pearl added that Beard would be the first person to tell you, “You’re not going to hire a better coach than Kermit Davis. Kermit Davis was a great coach at Ole Miss and Chris would be the first one to say it. But you couldn’t do better than hiring Chris Beard.”

Davis was fired at Ole Miss after the Rebels went 22-47 in the SEC over the past 4 seasons, and didn’t make the NCAA Tournament after his first season. They made a late run in 2021, but were relegated to the NIT.

At the time of his firing, Ole Miss was 10-18 and 2-13 in the SEC.