Mylan Graham Making Most Of Opportunities To Work With Brian Hartline

Mylan Graham committed to Ohio State back in early April, but that didn’t stop him from showing up to an OSU one-day camp this week in order to get some work in with his future position coach.

Graham is a 5-star receiver out of Fort Wayne, and back on Monday he could be found on an outdoor practice field with Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline and a group of fellow campers.

“I just wanted to get some work in with coach Hartline,” Graham said after the camp. “I felt it was necessary. He’s a great coach to learn from and I just wanted to go back to school and add some stuff to my game.”

Hartline worked with him on getting in and out of his breaks better, which would then make him faster. It was also nice for Graham to get back to his future home and visit with the coaches, including head coach Ryan Day.

“It’s always good to come,” he said. “I mean, it’s like a home like environment. I feel like every time I stop here, it just feels like home. And it felt great to get to work in front of coach Hartline and coach Day, and show them what I can do.”

The visits and the work with Hartline continue to solidify Graham’s decision to commit to Ohio State.

“Definitely. The more I work with him, the more I understand that it was the best decision for me possible,” he said. “I know the more I work with them, the better player I can be.”

The relationship with Hartline continues to be a driving factor in Graham’s comfort with Ohio State. And it really picked up a year ago when Graham camped at OSU and Hartline gave him his first FBS offer. Since then, everybody else has offered, and Graham has gone from a no-star to a 5-star.

“Yeah, a year ago was completely different,” he admitted. “I was an under-the-radar type of guy who really had no type of looks. Just trying to prove to everybody that I could play ball. Now it’s completely different. Now everybody knows I can play. I’m just trying to work and just keep getting better.”

From that day until this day, the bond with his future coach has only grown stronger.

“Every experience I’ve had with coach Hartline, whether he’s come to my school or I’ve worked out in front of him, or something on the phone, it’s always been a good experience,” Graham said. “He’s always teaching me some knowledge and things like that. It really just poured into me the more I wanted to come here because I had really a great bond with him.”

Graham said his recruitment is now over and his focus is on his senior season. He still wants to have a solid season himself, but the goal is different for his last go-round.

“All the recruiting stuff is out the window,” he said. “I’m just really just focused on getting my team to win more games, trying to get our team to a state title, and have all my teammates get to college.”

While Graham is doing that, Hartline also wants him to dig into how the Buckeyes use their receivers. His first task is to watch rising senior Julian Fleming, because Hartline sees Graham as a speedy, outside “Z” receiver initially. But he also wants him to watch Emeka Egbuka, because Egbuka is a guy who will play both inside and outside.

“He was just letting me know, every time we talk about it, he’s really like, ‘I paint you as an outside guy, but I don’t want to just force you to outside. I could see you both running in and out,'” Graham said. “But he said I’m pretty good at a Z, like a single-side receiver who can come in motion and things like that.”

A lot has happened over the past year for Mylan Graham. He went from unknown to known, unrecruited to committed. A lot can change in a year, but for Graham, he’s not letting the attention and notoriety get to him.

“I just throw it all out the window,” he said. “Some days I wake up and I forget about all the stuff. I just try to focus on being the best Mylan Graham I can be.”

And how good can that guy be?

“He can be really great, I can tell you that,” Graham said. “He can be really great.”

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