Brady Ross always had one believer he could make it as a Hawkeye

IOWA CITY — Brady Ross' dad never steered him the wrong way. For example, there was a brief moment in sixth grade when Ross, a 6-1, 240-pound fullback for the Iowa Hawkeyes, thought he might have what it takes to make it as a basketball player.

'He was a real guy, he'd shoot you straight,' Ross said Thursday after practice for the Hawkeyes' appearance in the Outback Bowl. 'He told me in sixth grade when I thought I was going to be a basketball player, not so fast on that one.

'So, when he said something, you can trust it, because he'd shoot you straight.'

Ross lost his father, Todd, in late July. Todd Ross had difficulty remembering things and found himself a few times making trips to a friend's house, a friend who died a year earlier. He was losing cognitive function and went missing for a couple of days. He committed suicide. The autopsy showed Todd Ross had an advanced stage of brain cancer.

No one in the family knew it, Brady said. You're 20. You're a walk-on trying to make your way in a land of giants. Summer conditioning was just about over on July 20 with August camp straight ahead.

Todd Ross told his son he wasn't going to be a superstar basketball player. He also told him he could play football at the University of Iowa.

'He really believed in me,' Ross said. 'When I was facing a decision to take a scholarship at a high-level Division II school or walk on at Iowa, I wasn't sure if I was good enough to play here. He was. He was instrumental in talking me into this and talking me into not settling. No one believed in me more than him.'

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz first threw Ross' name into the 'possible player' category during Rose Bowl prep. Ferentz said they had a linebacker who was a pain in the tail on scout team. Ross did win the 'team leader' award for defense last year. Ross had a pretty good idea the linebacker thing was a layover on the way to fullback, which is where he ended up last spring.

Ross was glad his father knew he ended up at fullback. They both kind of saw that coming.

'A key component to me coming here was that I knew Iowa had a fullback,' Ross said. 'I knew that was a very real possibility in the future. They (coaches) never mentioned fullback in the recruiting process, but I kind of knew it was a very real possibility and so did he (his dad).

'Toward the end there, I actually was a fullback and he knew I was going to be a fullback and he was just thrilled. He was really looking forward to seeing me on the field.'

Ross wrapped his wrists in white athletic tape for games and wrote the initials 'TR' in black marker. You can see 'TR' when he recovered a fumble to begin the second half against Michigan, which eventually set up a field goal in a game were every point mattered. Fullbacks are 'backs' in name only really at Iowa, but you can see the 'TR' in Brady's one carry of the season, a 2-yard run at Illinois.

You're 20. You're about to start major-college football training camp, one of sport's most difficult endurance tests. You learn of your father's death. Where did Brady Ross go with that? Did he need time to return to earth?

'I'd never been more focused on football,' Ross said. 'I was just really happy to be back. I knew that it was go time.'

You might see the 'TR' a lot in the Outback Bowl. In the season finale against Nebraska, fullback Drake Kulick, who shared the position with Ross, suffered a broken leg (Ross said he broke it in three places) and will miss the bowl.

The Nebraska game ended up being Iowa's most 'fullback' game of the season. The Hawkeyes rushed 47 times for 264 yards. On a fullback isolation play, Ross got a piece of a block that sprung running back LeShun Daniels for a 56-yard gain that eventually led to a touchdown and an insurmountable 20-3 first-half lead.

'It was a really fun game to play in,' said Ross, a business major who recently earned academic all-Big Ten. 'Obviously, the circumstances for why I was in there so much (Kulick's injury), you wouldn't want that in a million years, but it was a lot of fun.'

Ross ended his redshirt freshman season on a high. Of course, the start was a jolt. He's leaned on his two families. His mom, Becky, his brothers, Spencer and Taylor, and his sister Mackenzie are there. Of course, there's the football family. It sounds cliche, but that doesn't make it any less true. Ferentz and several other coaches made it to Humboldt for the visitation.

'Just count your blessings every day,' Brady said. 'I have so much to be thankful for. Sometimes, I just lie in bed and think how lucky I am and how the stars have aligned for me. I have so many things that I don't deserve and there are so many people in this world who aren't as fortunate. We're so lucky to live in this country. I'm so lucky to have had two parents for 20 years who would give me the shirt off their back. Now, I still have one who loves me more than life itself. Count your blessings every day.'

Todd Ross loved motorcycles. Brady described him as a 'bad ass.' He still rides his dad's 2001 Harley-Davidson Road King.

'I ride,' Brady said. 'I don't know if I'm quite as bad ass as my dad was. Actually, I know I'm not.'

None of us are.

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