Center, Freshman All-American Parker Brailsford will join the Alabama Crimson Tide as a transfer.
Since Nick Saban’s retirement, Alabama has lost a number of athletes to the transfer portal. Fans of Alabama have expressed varied degrees of alarm over this, but the Washington Huskies are another club going through a similar scenario at the moment.
Interestingly enough, the Huskies finished second to the national champs and are now sort of Alabama’s roster reinforcement pool. Austin Mack, a very gifted quarterback, has already joined the Tide.
Alabama most certainly has their starting center for the upcoming season, which was even better news for the Tide this past weekend:
Late on Saturday night, Washington center Parker Brailsford confirmed his commitment to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Instagram, marking his second transfer portal commitment under new coach Kalen DeBoer.
In 2023, Brailsford redshirted as a freshman and started all 15 games for the Washington offensive line, which won the Joe Moore Award, which is granted to the finest offensive line in the country. The 275-pound, 6-foot-2 lineman started three games at right guard and twelve at center. With the losses of starter Seth McLaughlin (transferred to Ohio State), backup Darrian Dalcourt (graduation), and possible starting Terrence Ferguson II (transferred to Florida State), he is anticipated to play center for Alabama. Brailsford will be eligible for an additional three years.
Finding a new center had to be one of, if not the, top priorities for head coach Kalen DeBoer after a whole season of snapping problems.
Parker Brailsford provides the solution. After playing a few games at guard in 2023, the redshirt freshman switched to center for the remainder of the season. In his lone collegiate football season, Brailsford was named to the first team of the Freshman All-American and the second team of the PAC 12. Jackson Powers-Johnson of Oregon, who is anticipated to be a borderline first-round NFL talent this summer, was the first team center in front of him.
He is the highest ranked returning player in terms of PFF grades (for whatever stock you put into those), with both run blocking and pass blocking scores north of 81.
