We've previously detailed how Jeff Long's campaign to deny David Beaty his buyout is seemingly blowing up in his face, and we got further details on Wednesday.
According to testimony by Beaty, provided in February and published Wednesday by the Kansas City Star, Beaty was all but set to join the Texas staff as an analyst before Long intervened to stop it.
Beaty testified that he had relocated from Lawrence to Austin and was given a UT employee ID number until Texas AD Chris Del Conte called Long as a courtesy, at which point Long allegedly said:
“Jeff stated at that point … ‘I wouldn’t do that if I was you. His behavior is egregious,’” Beaty testified. “‘It was definitely Level I.’ And that … I think it made (Texas athletics director) Mr. Del Conte take pause.”
Beaty and Tom Herman maintain a friendship dating back to their 2007 season spent together on David Bailiff's Rice staff. Herman was the Owls' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Beaty the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.
Herman planned to bring Beaty in on an informal basis immediately after he was let go at Kansas to self-scout the Longhorns ahead of their rematch with Oklahoma ahead of the 2018 Big 12 Championship. That trip, much publicized at the time, ended up being truncated due to inclement winter weather.
Herman's plan to hire Beaty on a formal basis was also written about at the time, though it obviously did not come to fruition.
Beaty testified that he passed on opportunities to join the staffs at Missouri and Arkansas in order to work at Texas and, without the Texas job and his $3 million buyout withheld, Beaty said he generated income by giving motivational speeches and working as an Uber driver.
Elsewhere, the judge overseeing the case ruled against Beaty's arguments that he had no contractual duty to report NCAA violations and that his contract forbade KU from retroactively changing the nature of his termination. KU alleged that Beaty committed Level I NCAA violations and it was then allowed to terminate Beaty for-cause, and Beaty said the school set about to dig up skeletons in his closet in order to skirt his buyout.