An offensive lineman by trade, a position rooted in moving either yourself or your assignment from point A to point B.
Parker Brailsford likes to have a plan. Typically, he is a bit of an introvert, a “homebody,” as his old high school offensive line coach Mark Martinez put it. He likes to draw and cut hair and has even contemplated designing backpacks. Following the 2023 college football season, Brailsford’s plan was simple.
On Jan. 9, Brailsford and his teammates from the University of Washington would return to Seattle, licking their wounds from a championship loss; soon after, Brailsford and the other winners of the Joe Moore Award, given to the country’s best line, were planned to fly to Los Angeles to fulfill a sponsorship deal; then, Brailsford would return home to Mesa, Arizona, and start offseason training.
No less than 48 hours after Michigan-colored confetti fell on Brailsford’s head in Houston, Brailsford’s plan was tweaked altered, and eventually thrown out altogether when Kalen DeBoer took a phone call from Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne. The coaching carousel doesn’t consider vacation plans or mental health.
What followed was a “whirlwind” offseason, as Phil Brailsford, Parker’s father, told AL.com last month: Brailsford became one of the top players to change teams this spring, the highest-profile of four Washington transfers to make the jump to Tuscaloosa. But after appearing in initial practices, Brailsford missed a bulk of spring and, ultimately, didn’t record a snap during the A-Day scrimmage.
DeBoer reaffirmed Brailsford’s status on the team. He stated multiple times when asked in news conferences that Brailsford was going through “non-football related things” and wasn’t planning on transferring. And while schools did find ways to contact Brailsford through third parties, Brailsford wasn’t interested. Instead, as Phil Brailsford explained, he was a young adult digesting a new locale and a new plan at his pace.
“I mean there’s stress and pressure with football period, especially when you’re playing the Pac-12 Championship, the College Football Playoff, the National Championship. But you always got your teammates that you grind with every day that are there with you. This was kind of different (after transferring to Alabama) because it was just, ‘Where am I gonna be living? I don’t know anybody. Who’s gonna be my coach? How am I gonna get around?’ This was kind of his first time going through that, for sure.”
Initially, Brailsford was told to hold off entering his name in the portal. While DeBoer was en route to Tuscaloosa on Jan. 12, a swarm of Tide fans awaiting him, UW’s then-offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb wanted to throw his name in for DeBoer’s old position; Scott Huff, the Huskies’ former offensive line coach, also wanted to stay West.
As Brailsford was fitted for a custom suit and met Cedric the Entertainer in his swing through Hollywood, he found out that Huff and Grubb were, at least temporarily, following DeBoer to the Southeastern Conference. Brailsford, saddled with a carry-on bag, booked a ticket home. As he told Phil over the phone “I have no coach right now.”
By the weekend, Brailsford received a message from Alabama general manager Courtney Morgan, also formerly at Washington. An official visit was scheduled. By the following Monday, Brailsford was enrolled in classes and his parents were on a plane to Seattle to clean out Brailsford’s apartment, emptying drawers, closets and his fridge.
However, less than a month later, the coaching carousel spun again, throwing a wrench into Brailsford’s first practices with UA.
Washington offensive lineman Parker Brailsford (72) and Roger Rosengarten (73) run to the line during the national championship against Michigan at NRG Stadium in Houston on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.Neil Blake | MLive.com
Grubb, spurned by Washington, got an offer from another football club in the Pacific Northwest: the Seattle Seahawks wanted him to be their offensive coordinator. Huff — who had called Saguaro (Az.) High with weekly updates after Brailsford arrived on campus in 2022, and then worked with Brailsford to be a Shaun Alexander finalist last fall and first-team freshman all-American — soon followed.
“He just loves Huff,” Phil Brailsford said. “Then it was even more turmoil than there already had been.”
Other schools continued to throw name, image and likeness money at Brailsford. Phil said his son “probably took 30% of what he could’ve had” by picking Alabama. Martinez, who trains with Brailsford in the summer, asked Brailsford to figure out what would make him happy.
Brailsford stayed with UA’s strength staff while the rest of the team went through spring practice. Ron McKeefery, a strength coach, motivational speaker and special assistant to DeBoer at UA, developed Brailsford into a college athlete in Seattle, and the two pushed toward his “goal weight” of 290 pounds. Martinez said Brailsford is around 5-10 pounds away as fall camp nears, with Brailsford adding nearly 20 pounds in 11 weeks.
The chemistry, at least off the field, was quick to come with his teammates. Brailsford was the guest of honor at a party at Tyler Booker’s house, going over UW’s offensive highlights over Foosackly’s chicken finders and burger sliders. He was with a group of Tide players in Florida working with Tampa-based trainer Yo Murphy on May 16th.
Later this summer, Brailsford will join player-led practices. Along with a returning Kadyn Proctor, the offensive line will look a lot different than it did when fans saw it last. Brailsford will face new challenges, and not just SEC defenses. He will orchestrate a revamped offense with each snap constantly analyzed as last year’s woes of delivering the ball to Milroe linger.
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