Brailsford Not Only Became Starter, He Was UW's Best Guard

Parker Brailsford not only won a starting job at offensive guard for the University of Washington football team for Saturday's season opener, it was much more profound than that — he graded higher than all of the candidates involved.

At right guard, the 6-foot-2, 275-pound redshirt freshman from Mesa, Arizona, effectively unseated junior Julius Buelow, who is seven inches taller and 38 pounds heavier than him, and sent Buelow into competition with junior Nate Kalepo to be the starter at left guard.

"He was the top-ranked guard at the end of camp," Husky offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said of Brailsford.

While Grubb stressed that this was a close competition between all three of these players, Brailsford's climb up the depth chart for the Boise State game is nothing short of amazing.

Of nine 2022 freshmen, Brailsford was one of just two who didn't appear in a game last season, with defensive tackle Armon Parker out all year with a knee injury that required surgery. Brailsford was left to put weight on his compact and undersized frame and work on his technique. The end result was someone who could become an elite player.

"The athleticism with Parker and his ability to stick onto guys and stay connected, it's hard for them to tackle us when he's on," Grubb said. "He has the ability and knack to stay more sticky on guys, especially on the second level than the other two guys."

Brailsford stands to join a group of several UW lineman over the past decade who started as freshmen or redshirt freshmen.

They include offensive tackle Trey Adams, who played in 10 games in 2015 as a true freshman and opened nine; then-offensive guard Nick Harris, who started four of 12 games as a true freshman in 2017, two on each side; Coleman Shelton, who as a redshirt freshman in 2014 opened seven of 13 games at right tackle; Kaleb McGary, who opened six of 12 games as a redshirt freshman right tackle in 2015; and Luke Wattenberg, who started five of 11 games a as a redshirt left tackle in 2017. All but Adams are playing in the NFL today.

The precocious Brailsford could exceed all of them for early career accomplishments, for time served as a young guy. His coaches have marveled over his strength, which involves him being able to bench press more than 100 pounds over his body weight.

"He's almost awkwardly strong for his size," Grubb said. "He's one of the more powerful guys in the room."

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