It’s really hard to have a better day than Grady Gross did on Saturday. Gross, a sophomore kicker for the Washington Huskies who joined the program last year, has served as the team’s starting kicker during the 2023 campaign. And he came up big in the team’s most important moment of the season, as Gross got sent out for a 42-yard field goal at the very end of the team’s rivalry game against Washington State.
Despite missing a kick from 43 yards earlier in the game, Gross lined up and drilled this effort. It meant that the Huskies won the Apple Cup and moved to 12-0 on the season, which keeps their hopes of an undefeated season and a berth in the College Football Playoff on the line.
THE HUSKIES HANG ON@UW_Football hits the 42-yard field goal to win it in the final seconds
pic.twitter.com/0OE6bPiqdn
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 26, 2023
The catch: Gross is not a scholarship player, as he walked on to the team last year and has kept that distinction throughout this season. But after the game, Washington coach Kalen DeBoer did the only reasonable thing a coach could do in this situation and announced to the entire team that Gross is now on scholarship.
The moment @gross_grady earned a scholarship
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) November 26, 2023
It’s always so cool seeing a walk-on learn they’re being given a scholarship — just look at how much it means to him and the rest of his teammates — but considering the stakes of what Gross did before he learned the news, this one is probably a little extra sweet.