Why Most Player Development Programs Fail
The three lessons I learned after some of my best ideas didn't produce the results I expected.
When people hear that a player development program didn’t go well, they usually assume the programming wasn’t good.
Maybe the speaker wasn’t engaging.
Maybe the topic wasn’t relevant.
Maybe the event wasn’t organized well.
Over the years, I’ve learned that’s rarely the reason.
Some of the most disappointing player development experiences of my career involved outstanding opportunities.
The problem wasn’t the content.
The problem was everything surrounding the content.
Looking back at my time at the University of Houston, the University of Kansas, and Baylor University, I noticed three patterns that explain why many player development initiatives struggle.
Lesson One: Communication Matters More Than Content
One of the most frustrating experiences of my career happened at Houston.
The Miami Dolphins sent executives to campus to speak with our athletes.
They talked about careers in professional sports.
Player engagement.
Communications.
Marketing.
Leadership.
We had more than 30 football players majoring in sports management.
Only two players attended.
At first, I viewed it as a failure.
Today, I view it as a communication lesson.
Athletes don’t simply ask, “What is this?”
They’re asking:
Why should I care?
If we don’t answer that question clearly, participation suffers.
Lesson Two: Scheduling Is Strategy
At Kansas, we held branding workshops before NIL became reality.
The content was valuable.
The speakers were outstanding.
But fitting meaningful programming into the life of a Division I athlete is incredibly difficult.
Classes.
Practice.
Meetings.
Recovery.
Treatment.
Travel.
Study hall.
Adding one more commitment—even a valuable one—isn’t easy.
Sometimes the biggest challenge isn’t creating the program.
It’s finding the right moment.
Lesson Three: Meet Athletes Where They Are
Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned is this:
Not every athlete is ready for every opportunity.
Some athletes are fully invested in life beyond sport.
Others are completely focused on football.
Neither makes them bad people.
They’re simply at different places in their journey.
Player development professionals often plant seeds they’ll never see grow.
That doesn’t mean the work isn’t valuable.
It means development takes time.
Final Thoughts
Today, when a program doesn’t meet my expectations, I ask different questions.
Did we communicate the “why?”
Did we find the right time?
Were the athletes ready?
Because sometimes...
The program wasn’t the failure.
The conditions simply weren’t right.
And that’s part of the work.
Keep planting seeds.
Eventually, they’ll grow.