Grace’s passion for football led her to Huskies
Offensive’s analyst’s persistence got Mora’s attention
STORRS — Jim Mora says it was Mickey Grace’s persistence that first impressed him.
Not only did she reach out and send her resume to him after he was hired as UConn’s head football coach in November, but Grace seemed to be everywhere Mora was during his first few months in Connecticut.
She was on the sideline during recruiting weekends and never far from the Burton Family Football Complex.
The former Dartmouth assistant defensive line coach knew she wanted to work in Storrs and knew she needed to be present to get noticed.
So she kept showing up. When Mora finally brought Grace in to evaluate tape of high school and transfer players, he knew she was meant to be on his staff. She saw things others didn’t, and wasn’t afraid to disagree with them and speak her mind.
“There’s something about her, you know?” Mora said Thursday after the team’s 11th spring practice. “She’s got a strength of character that I really appreciate and it was like after that (film session), I was like ‘We need this person, whether it was a man or woman, we need this person in our program in order to be better.’ ”
UConn announced Grace’s hiring on April 1. She’s the first woman to be an offensive analyst in the program’s history and now, just a few weeks in, she’s already made an impact on both Mora and his players.
For Grace, though, it’s all about her love for football, for developing athletes and bettering the sport that has empowered her.
“I want to develop and I want to develop a lot of people,” Grace said. “I want to use football for service and Les Snead, my former GM at the Rams, always said if we’re not using football to enhance humanity, we’re doing it wrong. And so, if I can use football as a
vehicle to do whatever my purpose is, I don’t know what my purpose is, (but) I know that football is the vehicle to do that.”
Grace had never been to Connecticut before accepting the job with the Huskies. However, the state has a sense of familiarity to her since her mom, Dana, was born in Hartford.
“It’s really cool that she gets to come and show me where she was born and where her parents are buried,” Grace said. “It’s really wonderful for me on a familiar side to be here, but as far as Storrs is concerned, I love it. I love the campus, it’s really nice, the people have been really great. Everyone who is here, wants to really be here.”
At UConn, Grace works with the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator. It’s her first time working on the offensive side of the ball.
Grace’s first got into football in high school in Philadelphia. She started as a student aide on the team’s staff before becoming a kicker and eventually a member of the defensive line. She loved the sport from the very first day.
“Football kinda pulled me in more than I thought,” she says. “I thought it was me choosing it, but I just kept finding football in my life … It was always something to do and someone to serve. Football is a game of service and there’s a lot of people to serve at one time and it came so naturally to me to be this competitor.
“It’s been great and I love the game so much and your passion is returned to you so immediately here in football. I can’t really run from it anymore so I decided that some time ago that football is what I was gonna do and I was never going to make the decision again. Like football is it.”
When Grace got into coaching, she stuck with defense.
She was the defensive line coach at Mastery Charter School in Philadelphia before coaching the Philly Phantomz women’s professional team. She made her NFL debut as a training camp intern in Tampa Bay before becoming a scouting apprentice with the Rams in Los Angeles.
Grace spent the 2021 season as the assistant defensive line coach at Dartmouth.
“She was on the defensive side of the ball her whole career and then when we hired her we said, ‘Hey, want you to work with the wide outs,’ ” Mora said. “And I think she was a little bit apprehensive at the start, but if you’re a good coach, you’re a good coach, and really, you can adapt and coach any position and I’ve seen her do that.”
The players have already bonded with Grace, 29. They joke around with her while also knowing she’s not going to sugarcoat workouts and feedback during practice.
“She’s super cool,” senior linebacker Ian Swenson said. “She’ll come into the player’s lounge and just talk with us, like chat with us and have a great time. She brings a new aspect of coaching out here. She’ll get on you if you’re not doing what you need to do.”
Grace, mother to 6-yearold Aria, has been involved in football for a little over a decade. She’s met and worked with countless coaches and players, both men and women. While she sees the lack of diversity in football coaching across the country at the various levels, she knows she’s more than just a rarity on the sideline.
“The goal was that female coaches were never a novelty,” she said. “Like, I’ve been doing this 11 years, so I forget that it’s new to other people sometimes because it’s not new to me. I’ve been on so many different teams, high school, NFL and college, so for me it’s not new and I know so many women who are in coaching or in operations or are involved with football in some way and have been for forever. … You treat people how to treat you and so here it was never a conversation.”
Grace didn’t give up on getting Mora’s attention this winter because coaching football is what she wants to do. She kept showing up and kept reaching out because she had to. She’s made the sport her life and know she doesn’t want to do anything else.
“I was going to figure it out. A hungry dog is going to eat,” Grace said. “Since this is my life I have to figure out a way to make that work because I also have a daughter to raise and so I need to make sure that I’m actually making a life for her.
“Can I make a life out of football, regardless of gender, age or race? Can I make a life out of this? Even on my worst day, I’m still somewhere I pray to be, so you can’t really tell me anything.”
Mora’s Huskies make their debut in next Thursday’s Spring Game (6:30 p.m.) at Morrone Stadium. It’s the first time since 2003 the spring scrimmage will be played on the Storrs campus. The game is open to the public.