7/24/2022 football Edit

BeaversEdge Top 25 For 2022: No. 5 Alton Julian

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

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In the weeks leading up to the start of fall camp, BeaversEdge.com will be counting down the Top 25 Oregon State football players on the 2022 roster.

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MORE: July Recruiting Q&A | Recruiting Notebook

Alton Julian

Bio

No. 7

6-foot-2, 207-pounds

Defensive Back

Redshirt Junior

Valley Christian HS -> College of San Mateo

East Palo Alto, Calif.

2021 stats: Played in seven games, making five starts, and totaled 34 tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss and one interception

2021 Recap

In his second season with Oregon State, Julian had his most productive season to date before suffering a season-ending ACL injury against Utah in the seventh game of the year.

The injury was a disappointing setback for the rising Julian as he had tallied 34 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and one interception prior to going down and he really seemed to be an x-factor roaming the back end of OSU's defense.

Julian's best game of the season likely came in the win over USC when he tallied eight tackles and one interception. He also tallied seven tackles twice, against Hawaii and Washington.

Playing a total of 325 snaps, Julian recorded the highest-overall Pro Football Focus score amongst Beaver defenders with a 78.7. Despite playing in only seven contests, Julian's on-field prowess was noted as he earned Pro Football Focus Second-Team All-Pac-12.

2022 Outlook

Heading into the 2022 season, the biggest question regarding Julian is when he's back to full health and rhythm on the field. Typically, an ACL recovery is 6-9 months (sometimes closer to a year) and we'll be right around nine months by the time fall camp kicks off.

Julian obviously didn't take part in live drills during spring, so we'll get our first look at him when fall camp kicks off on August 3rd.

I'd anticipate head coach Jonathan Smith giving us an update ahead of the start of camp, which should indicate how quickly we can expect Julian in the mix.

While he may not quite be at 100% when the season kicks off, I don't anticipate it taking long for Julian to be back in stride. The timeline of an ACL recovery depends on a variety of factors, but given the competitor Julian is, I'm betting he's going to be back sooner than expected.