Grosel’s Guts, Leadership on Full Display in Mizzou Win
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Staff Writer
Dennis Grosel threw a pick on Boston College’s first play from scrimmage Saturday. He could have easily had a few more. And, at one point, he piled up five straight incompletions.
But the former preferred walk-on stepped up against Missouri when it mattered most.
Actually, he soared.
“It’s unbelievable what he was able to do,” second-year Eagles head coach Jeff Hafley said.
During the Eagles’ longest drive of the game—a 16-play, 7:02 series that completed a 13-point BC swing—Grosel scrambled on 4th-and-4 to move the chains.
He saw the left side of the line squeeze, bailed on his progressions on the opposite side of the field and made a bee-line for the first-down marker.
The 6-foot-1 Grosel flipped on the accelerator and dove for the sticks, outstretching his left hand with the ball to pick up five yards and a fresh set of downs.
It wasn’t always pretty, but those were the kinds of plays that the redshirt senior made to keep pace with a Missouri offense that, for the most part, picked apart the Eagles through the air.
Grosel completed four passes in a row after his first quarter interception, including a 27-yarder to Zay Flowers when BC was down, 7-0, and backed up against its own end zone. He finished 18-of-29 for 175 yards and two scores with that one pick.
He piloted five Eagles scoring drives that lasted longer than five minutes, the most impressive of which came at the end of regulation. First, Grosel converted a pair of critical third downs: one with his legs on a quarterback sneak, the other with his arm, hitting Flowers on a 3rd-and-4.
BC was set back on that drive after running back Travis Levy committed a face mask penalty amid a 14-yard run that would have slingshotted the Eagles to the Missouri nine-yard line. Because of the infraction, though, BC was dragged to the 25 with the clocking ticking and a four-point deficit.
“The first thing after that was Dennis,” center Alec Lindstrom said. “He comes up to us, he goes, ‘It's 1st-and-12, we're on schedule. Let's go. We're moving the ball. Let's go. We got this.’ He was such a great leader in that moment.”
Grosel completed a seven-yard pass to tight end Joey Luchetti and, three plays later, took a quarterback keeper seven yards to the Missouri five-yard line. Soon after, Levy punched the ball in.
But that wasn’t the dagger. The Tigers quickly weaved their way into field goal range, and Harrison Mevis tied the game at 34-34 as time expired, courtesy of a 56-yard kick.
In overtime, however, Grosel picked up where he left off, finding Flowers for a 10-yard touchdown pass.
“He was my second read, apparently the first read was wide open in the other corner,” Grosel said humbly. “So it's fortunate he ran it down. He's like a dog with a frisbee. You throw it up there, and he comes down and gets it.”
That’s who Grosel is: down to earth, never taking credit for himself, happy to be there.
He spent part of his postgame presser combing through the box score and talking about BC’s improved run game, which he said has looked better in four games this year than it did all last year combined. Grosel’s encouragement of his playmakers and offensive linemen doesn’t go unnoticed.
“He had our backs,” Lindstrom said. “He was slapping us on the butt, saying good job and we’re doing stuff, and he got us through that, and when things would get down and not go our way, or maybe a call here or there, he was like, ‘No, screw that. Let’s go. We’re going.’ And we’re like, ‘F yeah, let’s do it.’
"It was awesome.”
The win was Grosel’s fifth as BC’s starter. He bottomed out a six-quarterback depth chart in 2018. Since, he has earned a scholarship, twice replaced the Eagles’ starting signal caller for an extended period of time, made SportsCenter’s Top 10, tied a single-game program record and led BC to its first 4-0 start since 2007.
That’s quite a career for someone who almost never played college football.
“We work so hard for this,” Grosel said.
“We've come such a long way. I love this place and this team. It's so incredible.”
