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    • How the Huskies try to free Grady Gross from his crisis
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    How the Huskies try to free Grady Gross from his crisis

    Bronwen Cerys Posted on

    Things were going great for University of Washington placekicker Grady Gross. He converted on his first six field goal attempts of the season. He was confident and consistent every time he made a three-pointer.

    However, the first crack in the foundation appeared when he experienced his first failure. On the final play of the first half against Northwestern, he pushed a 51-yard attempt left. If he had done it, it would have been a long career, by four meters, so it didn’t seem like such a big deal.

    However, on a trip to New Jersey to face Rutgers, his comfort zone dissolved, which was highly uncharacteristic of him.

    After making a 22-yard throw to start, he missed all shots on three consecutive shots at the 42nd, 37th and 55th minutes, sending them all left in the 21-18 loss at Piscataway. The 55-yarder came on the final play to tie the game and was long enough, but it sailed past him.

    In 2023, he missed just four shots in a 15-game season – and here he hit nearly the same number in one game.

    Suddenly, Gross was like a golfer with a quick, hurried swing instead of his normal rhythm, whose ball could fly almost anywhere, and he became someone whose body language seemed to change almost instantly.

    However, his personal misery was not quite over. Against Michigan, Gross pulled a 41-yarder left and had a 28-yard attempt deflected – giving him six errors in seven attempts – before calming down and tying the game with a 28-yarder to tie the game at 17 and the Huskies a 27 gave -17 cushion with a 32 yard kick, that was true.

    Afterward, coach Jedd Fisch felt compelled to offer public words of encouragement to his field goal man, a junior who also serves as team captain.

    “I believe in our kicker, I believe in him,” Fisch said. “I see how hard he works every day. At the start of the game my heart breaks for him because those kinds of missed shots can obviously harm a person.”

    Kicker Grady Gross scored against Michigan and made 2 of 4 against the Wolverines.

    Kicker Grady Gross scored against Michigan and made 2 of 4 against the Wolverines. / Skylar Lin Visuals

    But as this became an ongoing problem, Fisch also sought advice from former NFL informant Gary Zauner, a retired special teams coach who still works as a consultant, which was first revealed during NBC’s broadcast of the game . In other words, the UW coach brought in a swing coach to calm this troubled kicker and try to restore his confidence.

    While Gross scored on his last two field goal attempts against Michigan and was under a lot of pressure in the nationally televised Big Ten game, he’s likely still in the recovery phase when it comes to getting back into full swing come. Repeated failures often shock you deeply.

    While Fisch sought a quick fix by having his kicker speak to what could be described as a kicking therapist, the Husky coach acknowledged that more intensive measures such as mechanical adjustments would not be introduced until the bye week, when a longer break-in period is required the action after Saturday’s game at Iowa.

    “We didn’t plan on really integrating things into game week,” Fisch said. “But on the bye week, some of the things he did with some of his NFL kickers can (be used) in terms of the pattern of the number of kicks where you can take it from each hash.”

    But what really matters is that Gross banishes any negative thoughts, swings his foot like he used to, and convinces himself that he’s still a great kicker.

    For the latest UW football and basketball news, visit si.com/college/washington

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    Bronwen Cerys
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