Parker Brailsford still talks with former Alabama football offensive lineman Tyler Booker "a good amount."
Brailsford, Alabama 's center and one of four team captains, calls Booker one of the best leaders he's been around, one who kind of set the tone for the Crimson Tide offensive line room in 2024.
And ahead of 2025, while he prepared for his first season with the Dallas Cowboys , Booker called into an Alabama football team meeting with a message.
"His message was to … basically, not regret anything," Brailsford said. "He wanted us to go hard every day so at the end of it, when everything is settled down and all the bullets are done flying, that we don't have any regrets and moving on to next year."
Brailsford looks up to Booker. But Brailsford is not the same kind of leader as Booker.
Brailsford is much calmer. He's the one to keep the Alabama offense on the same page. He directs traffic.
Brailsford is the kind of leader who's been there before. He's played in a College Football Playoff national championship game. He's been the center on big stages.
So when Brailsford sees a huddle that is a "little antsy," he knows exactly what to say.
"I just tell everybody, 'Just take a breath,'" Brailsford said.
With a new offensive coordinator in Ryan Grubb , and a new quarterback in Ty Simpson , Brailsford is that consistency for Alabama, the center who started all 13 games in 2024 and generated 777 snaps.
That consistency, that sense of calm is something Grubb says Alabama has that not many programs do.
"I think he brings calm to not only the offensive line unit, but just the guys that are looking to have more playing time, potentially, then they had in the past, including Ty," Grubb said. "And just for the coaching staff, just understanding that there's a guy there that's going to be able to calm the waters is really, really valuable."
In Brailsford, Simpson said he has a person who holds him accountable, someone who knows what is expected and doesn't expect anything less.
"He makes sure I hold up to the Alabama standard," Simpson said. "I make sure I do the same thing with him."
Brailsford's standard is not low. It's one that expects execution on each snap. And that standard is repeated time and time again in the huddle to his offensive teammates as the Crimson Tide's calming force in the middle.
"'At the end of the day, we're going out there, we just have to execute our job,'" Brailsford said. "'That's the biggest thing that we have to do.'"
Alabama opens the 2025 season Saturday, Aug. 30 at Florida State.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: What Parker Brailsford brings to Alabama football offense in 2025
