Fear the Frog, the big banner reads.
It’s a proud rallying cry. A call to arms that boldly embodies TCU’s athletic renaissance.
But beneath the banner’s billowing message, there remains a real kind of fear, it seems.
Fear of rejection. Fear of once again being told you’re not good enough.
Coach Jamie Dixon has rekindled those insecurities, just by parrying questions this week about his interest in leaving for UCLA.
Since TCU’s season-ending 58-44 loss to Texas in New York on Tuesday night, Dixon’s only public comments about the Bruins’ vacancy were a few non-denial utterances after the game:
“I just don’t talk about other jobs. It’s the way I’ve always done it. I just don’t do it. No point. There are always so many rumors.”
Wednesday’s news cycle included tweets and speculation, mostly from West Coast observers, that the only hang-up to Dixon’s hiring was a reported hefty buyout in his TCU contract.
There’s a buyout, but it’s not the $8 million that the Los Angeles Times wrote Wednesday.
What no one is denying, especially Dixon, is that the California native is manifestly interested in leaving TCU, his alma mater, after three years to take over one of college basketball’s most storied programs.
And the immediate reaction from Camp Bowie to Berry Street?
Go ahead and go, Jamie. Just go.
Old insecurities never go away, it seems. Though TCU has earned its seat at the adults table – it owns a Rose Bowl trophy and has been to the College World Series five times in eight years – its fandom chafes at any suggestion of the bad old days, when coaches could use two or three years in Cowtown as a jumping-off point to a bigger job.
There are no bigger jobs, the TCU faithful wants to believe. Hence, the reaction last year when coach Jim Schlossnagle briefly kicked the tires on the baseball vacancy at Mississippi State.
For that matter, there are still Frogs fans who are angry at Dennis Franchione for leaving in 2000 for Alabama.
Alabama, people.
I realize that the great John Wooden coached his last UCLA game in 1975. And I’m aware that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Lew Alcindor is about to turn 72.
But Pauley Pavilion remains one of college basketball’s holy places, especially since its $136-million renovation in 2012. Basketball matters in Westwood, where the Bruins sell 10,000 season tickets.
By all accounts, the people at UCLA are desperate to regain national relevance. Their reported offer to Kentucky coach John Calipari, who declined, was six years for $45 million.
Troy Aikman may disagree, but UCLA is a basketball school, not a football school. And while it’s neither fair nor rational to make that either-or argument in today’s multi-sport landscape – UCLA, after all, could also be called a “water polo school” and TCU a “rifle school” – basketball coaches seem haunted by the shadow of their football stadiums. In Dixon’s case, there’s also a statue of the football coach just outside of his basketball office window.
On the other hand, I believe Jamie when he says, as he did Tuesday night, “I have a great job. I’m very lucky where I’m at. That’s all I can say. I’m very thankful for this opportunity I’ve been given at TCU.”
It was easy to envision Dixon, who is 53, getting one of those Calipari “lifetime contracts” from his alma mater. His statue might have stood one day near the TCU football icons.
But to me, it’s also not difficult to see why Dixon would want to return to the area where he was raised. He played high school basketball at Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Another important factor to note is that Jamie’s father has been battling with cancer. Jim Dixon often traveled to Fort Worth to see his son coach, but was unable to do so this season.
Yet, Jamie Dixon’s expected departure is rousing an old fear. Frogs fans are like the multi-millionaire who lives in constant fear of being poor again. The Southwest Conference breakup left a permanent scar, even now, when TCU has shown it can be a contender in all Big 12 sports.
The reaction that Schlossnagle experienced last year was unsettling. In truth, Schlossnagle over the years had been seriously approached by at least “seven or eight” schools and quietly turned them down.
And if you think Gary Patterson hasn’t gotten offers – Tennessee, Kansas State, Arkansas, to name just a few – you’re being naïve.
Rare is the college coach who won’t at least listen when another school calls. It’s not just the money; it’s the red carpet and the welcoming arms.
Dixon’s successor, if he leaves? I’m guessing that athletic director Jeremiah Donati has some ideas. The Dixon-to-UCLA rumors have been floating around for months.
With a virtually new arena after an $80-million makeover, Donati doesn’t have to cringe when showing someone where the gym is. It’s no Pauley Pavilion, where banners hang, but Schollmaier Arena is an excellent venue and a far cry from what Dixon’s predecessor, Trent Johnson, had to put up with.
How will TCU ever replace Jamie Dixon? Not to disparage the fact that Jamie’s three TCU teams raised the bar, but he can’t be the only coach in the country who can get the Frogs to the NIT.
If Dixon departs, this will be Donati’s first major coaching hire. The depth of quality Big 12 coaching will not allow him a mulligan.
In the meantime, don’t hate Jamie Dixon for wanting to go home – his real home.
I’m probably wasting my breath to say this, but TCU fans shouldn’t see it as a renunciation. Rather, consider that your head coach was good enough that one of the blue-blood programs in college basketball, John Wooden’s old school, wanted him.
And now TCU gets to flex its reawakened basketball muscle and steal someone else’s coach.
Fear the Frog? Feel better?
