Irvin Has Dealt With a Lot of Tough Stuff Since Becoming a Husky

While dealing with his mom's health situation, he's been making Husky football progress.

Dan Raley | Sep 23, 2022

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Washington Huskies

We see them as gladiators all dressed in purple, seemingly anonymous people impervious to distraction when they deal with injuries, outcomes, undying praise and callous criticism.

Then someone such as Julius Irvin enters the picture, pulls off his helmet and shows himself to be so much more than a football player whose every move is graded by fans, coaches and NFL scouts.

For two weeks now, Irvin has been a starting cornerback for the University of Washington football team, a replacement for Jordan Perryman, a transfer portal addition who lasted not quite three quarters before getting injured.

The 6-foot-1, 179-pound Irvin carries the added burden as one of the most heavily recruited players on the roster after turning down Alabama, Notre Dame, USC and others to join the Huskies.

He has the stigma of winning and losing a UW starting safety job in 2021, lasting just two games as the first-teamer before he seemingly was discarded by the former coaching staff.

Irvin likewise is the son of LeRoy Irvin, one of the most acclaimed NFL cornerbacks to the play the game, and expected by some to be every bit as good as his famous father.

If that wasn't enough to test someone's faith in the world, consider a horrific day in 2017 in Anaheim, California, when a teenaged Julius Irvin came home to find his mother Joyce lying on the floor, unresponsive and in need of emergency services that he summoned.

She'd suffered a brain aneurysm. Ever since, she's been in assisted-living care.

Before all of this happened, Joyce Irvin accompanied her son on his UW recruiting visit and offered him positive feedback.

"This was her favorite school," Julius Irvin said this week. "Part of the reason I came here is because of my mom."

Starting at cornerback for the second consecutive game, Julius Irvin steps in front of Michigan State's Germie Bernard and comes up with his second career interception.

Julius Irvin (29) joins linebackers Drew Fowler (54), Carson Bruener (42) and Cam Bright (2) in congratulating Davon Banks (10) for a fierce hit on a Michigan State kickoff.

To his coaches and teammates, Julius Irvin answers to many identifying labels. He's Juice, Julius Erving and Dr. J, the latter names in reference to the NBA legend.

Julius Irvin and Dominique Hampton, before the latter changed his number from 21 to 7, take the field together in 2021 spring practice. They've been starting side by side this season.

SACK LUNCH :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

On the blitz, Julius Irvin just misses sacking Montana quarterback Cam Humphrey in the 2021 season opener at Husky Stadium. Irvin made his first career start in this game.

DANCING WITH WOLVES :: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Sports

Julius Irvin throws himself in front of a Michigan Wolverines player while teammate Edefuan Ulofoshio comes barreling in from the back to make the tackle last season.

TO CATCH A THIEF :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Against Arkansas State last season, Julius Irvin cuts in front of a receiver to come up with his first career interception and returns the ball 34 yards in the fourth quarter.

With vintage NFL genes, Julius Irvin is the offspring of legendary NFL cornerback LeRoy Irvin, who played more than a decade in the pro football with the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions.

Julius Irvin earned his first Husky start at safety for the 2021 season opener against Montana. In five seasons, he's appeared in 27 games and opened in four, two at cornerback and two at safety.

TIME TRAVELER :: Jennifer Buchanan/USA TODAY sports

Shown here in 2019, Julius Irvin tackles a Hawaii runner out of bounds. In five seasons, he's played in 4, 4, 4, 12 and now 3 games in 2022, giving him 27 game appearances.

While in his fifth Husky football season yet still a junior after figuring in pandemic allowances, Irvin had his finest outing in last weekend's 39-28 victory over Michigan State. He intercepted a fourth-quarter pass, deflected another before halftime and came up with a pair of tackles.

"He just keeps biting, scratching and clawing to find his way on the football field," UW coach Kalen DeBoer said of Irvin. "It happened right in front of me, the pick. It was pretty cool. I could share that moment and tell him how I saw it."

Irvin feels renewed as a player while answering to a new Husky coaching staff. A year ago, he didn't get another chance to return to the No. 1 defense, even with the UW in such a dire need for starting safeties that it started seven of them. The current staff makes Irvin feel as if it can't proceed without him.

"Coach Juice Brown just always has trust in me; coach [Chuck] Morrell, those guys just have so much trust in me to move around from position to position and that," said Irvin, ever so personable and passionate. "Ultimately, it lets me feel comfortable going out there and knowing the coach really wants me to be out there. He has trust in me and he has faith in my ability."

He holds up career stats of 27 games played, 16 tackles, 5 pass break-ups and 2 interceptions. He previously found his way into the opening lineup only against Montana and Michigan in 2021. He feels athletically rejuvenated in going from Jimmy Lake's staff to DeBoer's.

"It's definitely a different approach to the game by the last coaching staff and this coaching staff," Irvin said. "I mean, I've never played this much in my career so far. Just to have those guys trust me like that to go out there and make plays, it means everything to me."

Meantime, he remains the dutiful son when it comes to Joyce Irvin. She's been confined to a care facility in Southern California going on five years now. Julius admits it's been tough dealing with how life changed everything for his mom.

Had none of this happened, she'd likely be a frequent visitor to Husky Stadium, watching her son make his move with that new set of coaches and being rewarded for it. Instead, she receives in-person reports from him whenever possible.

"It's going better now, she's better now, but she's like getting assisted living and stuff like that," Julius Irvin said. "I talk to her every time I come back to California and check with her and visit her."

Yes, these Husky football players are much more than players with hidden faces swatting away passes and receiving praise or getting beat in coverage and hearing about it. Pressure comes at them from all directions, too.

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Published Sep 23, 2022

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.