Inside The Huskies

How Grady Gross' Life Changed in 5 Seconds at the Apple Cup

The kicker decided the rivalry game with a last-play field goal against Washington State.

Dan Raley

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Imagine what you could do with your life in five seconds. For Grady Gross, he became legendary, extremely popular and now paid for.

On Saturday afternoon, the sophomore from Scottsdale, Arizona, bravely stepped up for what might hold up as the biggest kick of his college career and sent a 42-yarder through the uprights on the final play to make his University of Washington football team a 24-21 winner over Washington State in the Apple Cup.

This all came about with five seconds remaining in a hard-fought rivalry game when Gross made the kick only to have it waved off by a Washington State timeout that was called just before he launched his foot in it.

"I think it would have been nice for that one to count, but I have to do it again," Gross said. "That's my job."

With that, he set himself once more with the clock reading 0:05 and delivered another true three-pointer that turned Husky Stadium into a madhouse.

Students raced on to the field to carry Gross on their shoulders. As he tried to make his way up the tunnel, he repeatedly was stopped by people who wanted to congratulate him.

Once inside the locker room, coach Kalen DeBoer announced to his overly excited team that Gross, a walk-on entering the game, would be put on scholarship, and everyone cheered him.

"It was something we'd been talking about," DeBoer said. "He'd earned it. He's really had a great year."

Grady Gross watches his game-winning 42-yard field goal sail through the uprights at the Apple Cup.
Grady Gross watches his game-ending, game-winning field goal go through the uprights in the Apple Cup :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

After replacing record-breaking Husky kicker Peyton Henry, Gross has been good on 11 of 15 kicks this season, with a long of 47 yards against Arizona State. On extra-point kicks, he's been accurate on all 55 he's attempted.

DeBoer gambled on a fourth-and-1 play at the UW 29 with 1:15 left to play that was converted to eventually set up the kick. He was willing for the Huskies to try one from 50-plus if necessary. He was counting on Gross to get the job done all along.

"Our team really believes in Grady," DeBoer said. "They love him."

Yet stepping up to his final field-goal attempt, Gross had missed three in a row over the past three games, from 32 yards against Utah that was blocked, 39 against Oregon State in a rain storm and 43 against the Cougars early in the second quarter. 

None of that was on his mind, however, when everything was on the line.

"I felt fine," he said. "Every kick is a different entity."

Gross showed that to be true over the final five seconds of this game, with this end over end football making him an immediate Apple Cup hero and a fan favorite, if not a more respected teammate because he was good in the clutch.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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