Grady Gross Is Gone, So Who Kicks Next for Huskies?

The last time anyone other than Grady Gross attempted a place-kick for the University of Washington football team seems like forever.

Actually it was 27 months, 35 games, 127 conversion kicks and two Husky coaching staffs ago.

If you can name that outlier kicker, you get your choice of an autographed tee from either Chuck Nelson or Jeff Jaeger, both All-American kickers for the Huskies in the 1980s who enjoyed successful NFL careers.

Here goes: Addison Shrock.

That's Shrock, not Shrek.

Grady Gross watches his field goal sail through against Ohio State. | Dave Sizer photo

In 2023, after the last UW touchdown was scored in what would be a 59-32 blowout win over California in the DeBoer era, Shrock was summoned to convert the final point that September day and he kicked it true.

The Bellingham, Washington, product left the program following that elongated season that ended up in the CFP national championship game and his career stats will forever be perfect: 1-for-1.

Otherwise for three seasons, it's been all Grady Gross, who after a 2022 campaign spent kicking off only and backing up Peyton Henry, went a perfect 152-for-152 on extra points and 46-for-61 on field goals.

Gross is now graduated and the Huskies are in need of a new kicker.

Unless Jedd Fisch's staff pulls some wandering big foot out of the transfer portal, the Huskies will turn to senior returnee Ethan Moczulski, a former Texas A&M and Illinois booter, or incoming freshman C.J. Wallace from St. John Bosco High School in the Los Angeles area.

While the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Moczulski has bounced around some since coming out of Spokane, Washington, his place-kicking numbers are extremely modest.

He converted 1 of 2 field goals for the Illini, sending a 59-yard rocket through the goal posts against Central Michigan right before the half in 2024, and went 1-for-1 in conversion kicks the year before for Texas A&M against Louisiana-Monroe.

Grady Gross lines up a field-goal attempt. | Skylar Lin Visual

Coming home to the Northwest, Moczulski served as the UW kickoff man this past fall and put his foot into 74 of them, with 51 resulting in touchbacks and three going out of bounds.

The 5-foot-11, 160-pound Wallace comes to Montlake after kicking 54 PATs and three field goals for St. John Bosco in his senior season.

Kickers are often taken for granted, especially with someone such as Gross, who was reliable for the most part though he hit a little bit of a rough patch in 2024 with some misses.

Fisch's staff let him try just 13 field-goal kicks last season, half of what he attempted in 2024, largely because those coaches often prefer to go for it inside the red zone.

Henry was the No. 1 Husky kicker for five seasons before Gross replaced him and took the job for three.

Only Addison Schrock, with a football memory and not much more, interrupted their time on the tee.

Who's next?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: