(Photo Credit: Fox CFB) 

If I’d come up in today’s wild west of college athletics, I probably would’ve transferred after my first season at Washington State.

I hate to admit that—but it’s true.

Back then, I had zero reps, no clear path forward, and no idea what the future held. The normalization of jumping ship at the first sign of struggle might’ve pushed me to leave. 

But back then, transferring came with a cost—sit out a full season or take the Juco route. So I stayed.

And in doing so, I developed one of the most valuable Mind Strength skills I’ve ever learned: Grit. No Quit.

Angela Duckworth, in her book Grit, studied high performers—not just in sports, but across every domain. The most predictive trait for success? It wasn’t IQ. It wasn’t talent. It wasn’t test scores, family background, or education.
It was grit.

We live in an age of shortcuts. AI gives us answers in seconds. Social media delivers dopamine on demand. And college athletics? It’s become a revolving door.

But greatness doesn’t work that way. Good things take time.
Grit is what keeps you locked in when the external reward hasn’t shown up yet.

And that leads me to two concerns I have about the current landscape of college athletics.

First, I feel for the athletes playing in today’s system. Many are missing out on things money can’t buy or replace. One of those missing pieces is vital: community.

Where’s their alma mater? Their true home? Who are their lifelong teammates? Their roommates? Their brothers and sisters in the trenches? Everything’s become transactional.

“How much juice can I squeeze from this program?”
“How much juice can I squeeze from this player?”

That mindset goes both ways, and it’s eroding something sacred.

 
Second, I worry about what happens when these athletes enter the real world. What happens when life doesn’t go their way? When they face adversity at work? In marriage? With family?

 
Will they quit?
Will they “transfer” again?
Will they keep searching for the easy way out?

College athletics, for my teammates and me, was where we built our “Grit. No Quit.” muscle.
And today, we’re taking away that opportunity for a whole generation of athletes. We’re robbing them of some of life’s most powerful lessons. 

Struggle. Perseverance. Obstacles.

There’s a saying I’ve heard many times:
“Hard times create strong people. And strong people create good times. Good times create soft people. Soft people create hard times.”

So my question is this:
What are we doing to create the “hard” right now?
What are we doing to help athletes build the muscle of resilience and grit?

Because that muscle? That’s the one they’ll need for the rest of their life.