OXFORD — January was a whirlwind month for Julius Buelow.

On Jan. 8, his Washington Huskies lost in Houston to Michigan in the national championship game.

Four days later, Buelow’s Washington coach, Kalen DeBoer, was hired to replace Nick Saban at Alabama.

Within a week, Buelow was in Lane Kiffin’s office in Oxford, committing to Ole Miss.

It was fitting, perhaps, that when Buelow and his friend and Washington teammate, Nate Kalepo, visited Ole Miss, north Mississippi was being bombarded by snow and ice.

"I mean, it was kind of a blizzard,” Buelow said Thursday following Ole Miss’ practice earlier in the day. "Like when I came out here, it was definitely a lot of heartbreak. You know, you lose, and four days later, you don't really expect your coach to leave, too. So, yeah, my head was kind of in a whirlwind, but, you know, I stayed down, prayed up, and just trusted that the process and everything like that.

“I leaned on Nate, leaned on my brothers back in Washington, and everything worked out. I really wanted to finish out at UW. I had given five years. I was on a 4-8 team, and then we had the season we had last year, so I thought it was gonna be, you know, kind of just that fairytale ending of me finishing there, but that wasn't really in the cards for me when the time came.”

Buelow was turned on to Ole Miss by his former Washington teammate, Victor Curne, who played for the Rebels last season. Buelow got in touch with Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and offensive line coach John Garrison.

Months later, Buelow and Kalepo seem poised to be two of Ole Miss’ starting offensive linemen when the sixth-ranked Rebels entertain Furman on Aug. 31 in both teams’ season opener at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

“I just want to be a contributor,” Buelow said. “I want to be the best teammate I can be, you know, committed to the daily grind, the competition. Iron sharpens iron. We have a great (defensive) line. I think we have a great offensive line, too. think great things will come this season.

“I mean, we've definitely got the size. I think this is the first time I've played next to somebody, Micah being the same size as me, which is kind of weird, but we're definitely still in the beginning stages of building that chemistry, building that camaraderie. …We’ve got a lot of guys from different schools, you know, trying to get on the same page and getting the right calls in and just kind of having that chemistry. But I think, talent wise, we’re definitely on par with where we (the Huskies’ offensive line) were last year. …We’re all just committed to putting our best foot forward, pushing each other. That's the only way we're going to get better. We're all just down to have that. We just want to have the best unit possible.

Buelow said he learned a lot from Washington’s run to the national title game last season. It’s a path Ole Miss is hoping to follow this fall. Buelow said he believes the Huskies’ success a year ago was due to a commitment to “the details, the little things, you know, how you do one thing is how you do everything.”

“So, I mean, I told the guys — we had a get real Wednesday meeting — like my mom always told me, ‘Don't half-step in anything you do in life,’ and that definitely translates to football,” Buelow said. “You know, how you wash the dishes is how you're gonna block wide zone.

“It's all of those little things, and if you do them right, everything right, you know, and try to just better yourself every day, you're definitely gonna get there.”