Inside The Huskies

Top 10 Most Compelling Husky Plays of the Season: No. 7

Grady Gross was good under pressure and well-rewarded for it.

Dan Raley

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Kicking a 42-yard field goal on the final play of the Apple Cup to beat Washington State was the easy part for Grady Gross. He just stepped up and did it.

The difficult thing was having coach Kalen DeBoer talk about him to the team and beckon to him, with the sophomore place-kicker shyly hanging back among his Husky teammates, forcing one of them to shove Gross into view.

 "You know what else I hope Grady Gross is thankful for?" DeBoer asked, using a Thanksgiving analogy before delivering the punchline. "The scholarship he just earned!" 

As Gross dropped his head in an emotional moment, UW football players began jumping, yelling and pouring water all over him as they celebrated the kicker's good fortune.

In a season full of heroic, heart-felt and sometimes weird moments, we count down in reverse order the 10 most memorable plays for Kalen DeBoer's 13-0 UW team.

At No. 7 is Gross coming through on his most pressurized kick in two years as a Husky, actually having to do it twice because a WSU timeout canceled out his first make.

An unassuming type, Gross spent his first season handling kickoffs while sixth-year senior Peyton Henry finished up a record-setting UW career.

The sophomore from Scottsdale, Arizona, won the job and was able to ease into it with the Huskies easily winning their first four games.

He hit his only rough stretch leading up to the Apple Cup game-winner, with three consecutive misses, 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 it fazed him as he lined up left of the hold, took a couple of steps and curled his kick through on the left side.

"I felt fine," he said. "It's going to be in the back of your mind but you just have to know that every kick is a different entity. If you can make the next one it's just as good as the first one."

Gross did a little dance as people raised their arms, signaling a good kick. Husky Stadium turned into bedlam. Teammates and students next carried the kicker around the field before he was able to escape up the tunnel and receive his scholarship offer.

Of the Huskies' top plays, Gross' kick had a game outcome, a perfect season and a scholarship riding on it, all wrapped in one.

UW TOP 10 PLAYS OF THE SEASON

1. TBD

2. TBD

3. TBD

4. TBD

5. TBD

6. TBD

7. Grady Gross' Apple Cup 42-yard walk-off field goal

8. Edefuan Ulofoshio's 45-yard interception TD return

9. Ja'Lynn Polk's 92-yard touchdown catch

10. Alphonzo Tuputala's 76-yard interception return

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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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