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UW’s Parker Brailsford leads Joe Moore Award-winning O-line into battle against Texas
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 63,570 
By Shane Lantz
Seattle Times staff reporter
A year ago, Washington redshirt freshman center Parker Brailsford was on the scout team. Now he’s a linchpin on the nation’s best offensive line, and a key piece for the Huskies as they go into a national semifinal matchup against Texas on New Year’s Day in the Sugar Bowl.
Brailsford proved himself as a force up front for UW this year, receiving Freshman All-American and Second Team All Pac-12 honors. But the matchup he faces in New Orleans against the Longhorns will be his biggest test yet.
For Brailsford, the past year has been a bit of a whirlwind. He didn’t play a regular-season snap as a true freshman in 2022 but provided plenty of value, as he was named the Offensive Scout of the Week twice and was awarded the team’s Bob Jarvis Offensive Scout Squad MVP.
These days, Brailsford is now in the thick of the action with 13 starts under his belt, including each of the past 11 games at center. Though he is still just a freshman, Brailsford has earned the respect and admiration of his teammates thanks to his outstanding work protecting Heisman Trophy finalist Michael Penix Jr.
“It’s his work ethic. Just the amount of work he does and the way he leads the offensive line,” Penix said. “Just making sure that all their communication is perfect. He just strives to be great each and every day and he continues to get better each and every week. So he’s been amazing, and I wouldn’t want to be behind anybody else.”
Brailsford started the season at right guard but hopped over a spot in Week 2 when senior center Matteo Mele was lost for the season with an injury. The offensive line hasn’t skipped a beat since and learned Thursday that they had won the 2023 Joe Moore Award, given to the “Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in College Football.”
It’s the only award in college football that is awarded to a group of players rather than to an individual and is a long-awaited bit of recognition for a group that allowed only 11 sacks all season, tied for fourth-best in the country.
“The dominance of our offensive line has been critical to our team’s championship season,” head coach Kalen DeBoer said in a statement. “Under Coach Scott Huff’s leadership, this unit has provided exceptional protection for Michael Penix all season long and paved the way for a physical and efficient run game as well.”
Though he’d made his name as a guard in high school, Brailsford wasn’t intimidated when it came time to make the switch to hiking the ball. Huff had been making sure Brailsford was ready for that exact situation.
“Honestly, I don’t think it was that big of a change,” Brailsford said. “Huff always had me playing and rotating at center anyway, just in case anything did happen. But yeah, not much of a change. Now, I’m making more calls and getting everybody on the same page.”
Brailsford has faced some tough opponents and dominated them all so far. But he will have his work cut out against a Texas defensive line that features two of the most fearsome defensive linemen in college football, in junior Byron Murphy II and senior T’Vondre Sweat.
Murphy was named the 2023 Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year after putting up 26 tackles, eight tackles for loss and five sacks this season. Sweat, meanwhile, was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and won the Outland Trophy as the best interior lineman in college football after making 42 tackles.
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Penix has been kept relatively clean this season and any disruptions from the Longhorns could throw a wrench into the Huskies’ plans, but Brailsford doesn’t seem especially nervous about going up against the pair.
“Just the same stuff I’ve been doing all season,” Brailsford said of his preparations for Texas. “You know, getting prepared and finding little things that can help me in any way. Honestly, talking to other centers, other smaller centers that have dealt with bigger guys, and to see what they do and just implement that into my game.”
Four times this season, Brailsford was named the UW coaches’ offensive power player of the week and was also a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander Award, which goes to the best freshman in college football.
Junior right tackle Roger Rosengarten isn’t surprised by the success of his freshman linemate and credits the work Brailsford has put in practice against senior Tuli Letuligasenoa as crucial to his development.
“As soon as Parker got here, I knew he was going to be a special player,” Rosengarten said. “All it took was a little maturity on the field and playing against these high level guys.””
Though Brailsford is the youngest player on a unit that also features Rosengarten and Troy Fautanu at right and left tackle, and Julius Buelow and Nate Kalepo at the guard spots, he is far from a weak link. In fact, there don’t seem to be any weak spots on a line that has kept Penix upright and slinging the ball at a historic pace all season.
But with just one game separating them from a spot in the national championship game, the Huskies face a massive challenge against the No. 3 ranked Longhorns and their standout two linemen, who will surely be hungry to make Penix’s life miserable down in the Big Easy.
What they’ve done up front has worked to near perfection so far this season. Now the Huskies just have to hope that Brailsford and his award-winning line-mates are up to the task again.
“I think they’re really good players, the whole team. You know, great guys, good size,” Brailsford said. “But I think all we’ve got to do is what we’ve been doing. And there’s nothing different.”