Whenever local media members are permitted to watch a University of Washington football practice these days, down to one per week now, a check-list item is to see who's at left guard.
For all of spring ball and into fall camp, it's been Julius Buelow.
No offense to the big offensive lineman from Hawaii, it's just that he's been through some travails and is about to become the biggest comeback story on this current Husky football team.
Two years ago, Buelow was a starting left guard who lasted just five games in that role before a UW season under coach Jimmy Lake began to buckle and he was made one of the first scapecoats and lost his job.
A year ago, answering to the Kalen DeBoer staff, Buelow blocked only when the second unit was inserted or on points after touchdowns, but not as a starter.
"I almost felt like I was still in a slump last year, too," he said. "It's just something you got to battle. It's a lesson for a reason, right? Getting through that has been difficult but probably one of the most important lessons for me."
Buelow is one of those guys DeBoer's staff could have encouraged to go elsewhere. The coaches easily could have told him they didn't recruit him, he'd had his run in Montlake and it was time to move on.
Instead, they saw something encouraging in this junior from Kapolei, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu — far from the devastation that wiped out Lahaina on Maui — that was worth using to their advantage.
First, they remade his body. Buelow played at 6-foot-8 and 330 pounds in 2021; today, he's actually grown an inch to a team-tallest 6-foot-9 and dropped to a much more svelte 313 pounds.
His previous issues centered around being relatively inexperienced in game-day situations, specifically in handling quicker guys and getting overpowered on bull rushes.
This showed up in his final game as a starter, in the fifth game of 2021 against Oregon State in Corvallis, when opposing players were freewheeling it into the UW backfield ad nauseum. They repeatedly came through the lanes belonging to departed tackle Victor Curne and Buelow, to the point that Jaxson Kirkland got blindsided while simply pass-protecting and it was overly costly, leading to him have surgery and not get drafted.
Following the Huskies' first spring scrimmage last Saturday, DeBoer reported that he was pleased with his newly built offensive line, Buelow included, that it had held up well while pass-protecting for quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Dylan Morris.
"You see pretty mobile guys in there in Nate [Kalepo], Julius, Matteo [Mele] and Geirean Hatchett," DeBoer said at the conclusion of spring practice.
Buelow comes off as a well-spoken player who doesn't shy from his football past and is eager to see what the future holds. While he's a first-team player going on 25 consecutive practices now, in spring and fall combined, he cautions that things can change quickly.
After all with the season fast approaching in 2021, he was a second-team right guard who before he knew it was shifted rather quickly to starting left guard.
Buelow will need to get through this week and the next before lineups are set and the UW begins game-week preparations for the Sept. 2 opener against Boise State. Sophomore Gaard Memmelaar currently is his back-up, with redshirt freshman Parker Brailsford, the back-up center, also given some practice snaps at guard.
Should Buelow open against Boise State, he'll have reclaimed a starting job that what was once his 20 games ago, restored his football reputation and rebuilt his confidence. He'll be a success story.
"It makes you grow and makes you adapt," he said of his UW football journey. "It's survival of the fittest."
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