ANN ARBOR, Mich. — As a general rule, freshmen are to be seen and not heard in college football.
But in the case of Mason Graham, that’s all it took for his Michigan teammates to understand he was no ordinary newcomer. Seeing was believing, almost from the moment the 18-year-old defensive tackle from southern California arrived on campus as an early enrollee last December.
Braiden McGregor recalls an early conditioning workout where he and fellow junior defensive end Jaylen Harrell were going through a series of bench-press sets at 225 pounds — five reps at a time — in the weight room inside Schembechler Hall.
“And then we look over and we see Coach Herb with Mason,” McGregor said, referring to Ben Herbert, Michigan’s strength and conditioning director. “His first set was like 275 (pounds), and then he went to 315, and then he just kept putting weight on. And we’re like, ‘OK, this is a freshman. This is pretty impressive.’
“The final set, I don't even remember what the weight was, but we looked over at Coach Herb, and we were, like, ‘He's got it?’ And he's, like, ‘Yeah, he's got it.’ I was, like, ‘Wow, this guy is gonna be a guy for us for sure.’”
Graham already 'a guy'
He’s a ‘guy,’ all right. And for Graham, who quickly asserted himself as a force on one of college football’s best defenses this fall, that’s probably where the confidence started to grow. That was his first statement, letting everyone know he’d be seen and heard as a freshman.
“I'd say that, yeah,” Graham smiled last week, as the Wolverines wrapped up practice in Ann Arbor for Saturday’s College Football Playoff semifinal against TCU. “I didn’t know at the time, but I guess they were watching.”
Everyone would be soon enough, and while Graham made his share of freshman mistakes in the spring — “In those early practices, I kind of messed up a little bit on all the play calls,” he says — he also was winning his share of 1-on-1 battles in fall camp. Against the likes of All-American center Olu Oluwatimi and All-Big Ten guards Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan, no less.
“He's a freshman and he’s able to just move around fifth-year seniors,” said cornerback Will Johnson, another freshman standout for this year’s Michigan defense. “We got the best O-line in the country, and he's doing what he's doing against them every day in practice? I mean, that just showed that when the games came, he was gonna do (it then), too.”
That he has is just one reason among many that Michigan has gone from what Jim Harbaugh initially dubbed a “no-star defense” to what McGregor now calls “an all-star defense” where “everybody makes plays.”
Plays like that critical fourth-and-one stop Graham made in Michigan’s icy win over Illinois last month. Or that double team he beat in the fourth quarter at Ohio State to help force the Buckeyes’ C.J. Stroud into a victory-sealing interception. Or setting the tone to start the second half at Iowa by rag-dolling a redshirt junior guard on his way to a huge sack.
“Week by week, he's gotten better and better,” Harrell said. “No matter how big the game, he's making plays.”
Immediate impact
Graham and Johnson were named to Pro Football Focus All-Freshman team this season, in addition to sharing Michigan’s defensive freshman of the year honors. And the PFF college analysts actually ranked Graham second among all Big Ten interior defensive lineman in their grading this season, albeit with half as many snaps (286) as his All-Big Ten teammate Mazi Smith (575).
Graham cites the veteran leadership up front in Smith, senior end Mike Morris and junior Kris Jenkins for helping bring him along quickly, as well as the daily tutoring from Mike Elston, Michigan’s defensive line coach. But all will tell you the freshman deserves the bulk of the credit for his instant impact.
“Oh, the second he came in here, you could just tell — everybody could tell,” Jenkins said. “The dude is a sponge, and his football IQ is definitely there: He's able to pick up things very quickly. And then just his sheer athleticism, strength, power, speed, intensity ...”
Yeah, that shows up on film consistently, as Graham routinely finds his way into opposing backfields. The freshman was Michigan's highest-rated defensive lineman, per PFF, in half of its 10 Big Ten games this season.
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 317 pounds, Graham attributes some of his success in the trenches to his background as a heavyweight wrestler.
“From my viewpoint, as a defensive lineman, it has helped a lot,” said Graham, a two-time All-Trinity League heavyweight at Anaheim’s Servite High School. “Knowing leverages, shedding blockers, stuff like that.”
That kind of stuff went largely overlooked by Power 5 football recruiters until his senior season at the all-boys Catholic prep school, though. Graham had initially committed to Boise State before Michigan extended a scholarship offer in late August, and USC and Oregon followed a month later after he racked up a handful of sacks in his first two games.
But Graham held firm to his Michigan commitment despite a late push from USC after Lincoln Riley took over that program last winter, and a year later neither he nor Michigan’s staff has any regrets.
“He’s got a really high ceiling,” said Jesse Minter, the Wolverines' first-year defensive coordinator who wasn’t part of Graham’s recruitment. “I think he’s got a really bright future here.”
Graham admits he wasn’t sure a year ago what role, if any, he’d play as a freshman when he showed up in Ann Arbor last December. But opportunity knocked once Chris Hinton and Donovan Jeter declared for the NFL Draft after last season, and now we know the answer.
“Yeah, it's been a long journey, but it hasn't seemed long,” he said. “I didn't really know coming into it. I didn't know who was staying, who was leaving, or what was going to happen. So I just came with a mindset of, ‘I gotta put in the work like everyone else, and the results will come.’”
And now, as everyone sees, he was right.
