House cleaning at TCU continues as one of its longest-tenured coaches will leave

Bill Montigel has been a part of TCU athletics for what will soon to be his 45th, and last, year with the department.

TCU director of athletics Jeremiah Donati confirmed that the longtime TCU men’s golf coach is expected to step down after the 2022-23 season.

According to multiple sources, Montigel’s contract was not renewed. He has told friends that he is not retiring and he wants to continue coaching.

“I’m still the men’s golf coach under contract. I am committed to the TCU men’s golf program and looking forward to the upcoming year,” Montigel responded via text.

“We have a great group of talented golfers coming into the program as well as seasoned players returning and I am looking forward to a successful year.

“I know we have the guys and talent for a big 2022-’23 season. As you probably know, one of our guys (Filippo Celli) just won the European Am and will be playing in the British Open in a couple of weeks as well as the US Amateur.”

In his 35 previous years as the men’s golf coach, Montigel has built one of the most successful programs in the nation. The team reached the NCAA regionals 31 consecutive years, a run that ended in 2022.

According to multiple sources, there is no one specific reason for this move.

Montigel is soon to be 70.

There is some frustration on the part of influential alumni with the direction of the program, specifically as it relates to recruiting student athletes from overseas.

Montigel’s scheduled exit is consistent with a department that is undergoing a makeover among its roster of head coaches.

Since June 2021, baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle left for Texas A&M; football coach Gary Patterson “stepped down;” volleyball coach Jim Kramer’s contract was not renewed and track and field coach Daryl Anderson was recently fired after 18 seasons.

Montigel has been around TCU longer than any of them.

How he built TCU into a top men’s golf program is one of the more peculiar stories you’ll see in college sports.

Montigel’s background was in basketball, and he served as a top assistant for TCU men’s basketball coach Jim Killingsworth in the ‘80s.

Montigel was one of the primary coaches involved in the recruitment of Jamie Dixon.

When Dixon returned to TCU to become its men’s basketball coach in 2016, he hired Montigel’s son to join his staff. Thomas Montigel is the TCU men’s basketball director of operations, and was recently promoted to assistant athletics director.

After Killingworth retired, Montigel moved over to become the department’s men’s golf coach.

The job isn’t so much anchored around knowing golf as much as knowing how to recruit. Montigel had the recruiting part down.

Under Montigel, the program won eight conference titles, and appeared in the NCAA championships 20 times as a team.

Montigel landed top golfers such as Adam Rubinson, J.J. Henry, Julien Brun and PGA Tour member Tom Hoge.

Former TCU player Greg Sands is the men’s golf coach at Texas Tech, and Cole Buck is the assistant coach at Stanford.

In the last several seasons, Montigel’s roster has been peppered with players from Europe. It’s become an issue among some of his former players.

Recruiting international student athletes is common for several Olympic sports, specifically golf, tennis, track and field, at college programs all over the country.

Of the 13 players listed on the TCU’s men’s golf roster, five are from Europe.

Two of the eight players on the TCU’s women’s golf roster are from overseas.

All eight of the TCU men’s tennis players are from overseas; on Tuesday, former TCU player and Great Britain native Cam Norrie advanced to the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Six of the nine TCU women’s tennis players are international.

The draw of recruiting international players is that typically the players are talented, good students and the coach doesn’t have to deal with their parents.

TCU officials have said they would like the program to forge more of a relationship with some of the surrounding country clubs to bolster recruiting; the most obvious candidate, because of geography, is Colonial Country Club, where potentially an on-site facility could potentially be built.

Such plans are for later.

Bill Montigel was the ultimate good soldier for TCU, as he succeeded despite countless changes in conference membership, department, and university, leadership.

TCU changed, but Bill Montigel’s teams just kept winning.

Much like Gary Patterson, Bill Montigel plans to coach after this year.

It just won’t be at TCU.