Washington loses Grady Gross and Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei after court rulings

Washington will not get two of its fifth-year veterans back this season. Head coach Jedd Fisch said kicker Grady Gross and defensive tackle Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei are out after courts ruled against their bids for another year of eligibility, Roundtable Sports reported.

Fisch put it plainly at his weekly news conference: "Their appeals, their (cases) were overturned by the courts. So they're out." According to Roundtable Sports, he said neither player is likely to suit up again this year.

Both players rejoined the Huskies during fall camp. They were part of a wave of Class of 2022 players around the country trying to return to their programs. During the offseason, the NCAA adopted its new "5-for-5" eligibility model, which replaces the old four-year standard and does away with redshirts and medical waivers. Players from the Class of 2023 onward were grandfathered in. The 2022 class was not, and many of those players sued.

For a short time, a class-wide injunction against the NCAA let Gross and Uiagalelei practice. A later court ruling stayed that injunction, and both were barred from playing or practicing. From that point, each would have had to win his own case in his home-state court. Gross won for a while and handled kickoffs against Eastern Washington and Minnesota, but he has missed the last two games. Uiagalelei has not played for Washington this season.

The timing hurts. Roundtable Sports described the Huskies' loss to Iowa as one where nothing went right. Washington gave up 27 points in the first half, and its kickoff unit sent several kicks out of bounds, which is the job Gross had been doing. The offense has yet to score more than 24 points against an FBS opponent. With both players now ruled out, the Huskies have to fix their kickoff coverage and their defensive interior using the players already on the roster.

Washington (3-3) travels to Purdue (3-3) on Friday, Oct. 16, for an 8 p.m. EDT kickoff on Fox. Both teams are at .500 heading into the second half of the season, so the winner gets above that line and the loser drops below it.

The market has the home team in front. Purdue is favored at -160 on Novig, one of the venues pricing the game, and FanDuel's best price on the Boilermakers is -162. The spread is Purdue -3.5 and the total is 52.5. The full board is on the Washington at Purdue odds page.

For Fisch's staff, the court rulings settle a question that had lingered since camp. Whatever improvement Washington makes on special teams and in the front seven this week will have to come from players already on the depth chart.