Mylan Graham Stacking Days, Impressing Teammates And Coaches

Generally, when a five-star wide receiver enters his freshman season at Ohio State, he doesn’t fly too far under the radar. For Mylan Graham, however, that is precisely what is happening, but it doesn’t really have much to do with his play.

This year’s Ohio State team is loaded with talent and expectations, so the excitement and attention is spread over a wide swath of land. Plus, there is already a freshman wide receiver at OSU named Jeremiah Smith who is getting an immense amount of attention.

Add in the fact that Graham didn’t enroll until June and the math starts to make sense. There wasn’t much talk about Mylan Graham before fall camp, but his name is popping up more and more as practice goes on.

“Mylan’s gonna be good. He’s got the wiggle. He can do it all,” sophomore wide receiver Carnell Tate said last week. “He just got here, so it’s just a lot being thrown at him and stuff like that. So when he relaxes and gets the ropes up, he’s gonna be really good.”

Speaking with reporters on Thursday, OSU head coach Ryan Day revealed that Graham was among the handful of players who graded out as champions in Saturday’s scrimmage.

“Mylan Graham, for a young player, has really had a good five days,” Day said. “He kind of got to the point where he had that, we call it ‘the doldrums of camp,’ where he can’t really get any momentum, and then the last five days, he’s built his own momentum and made plays. So that’s been encouraging to see from him.”

It’s more likely for a freshman to make an impact if he enrolls early and gets to go through winter workouts and spring practice, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen for a June enrollee. Former Buckeye receiver Chris Olave is an example of that in 2018. By the middle of the season he was playing more and more, which ultimately led to two touchdown catches and a blocked punt in a win over Michigan.

But it’s still a process, and that process is different for everyone.

“Yeah, Mylan came in this June and, man, he’s really done a good job of learning the offense,” receivers coach Brian Hartline said. “Learning what I want, what we want. I would say that he has a lot of pride in his work. He does not like having [missed assignments], almost to the point where he tries to justify himself and why he did it. It’s like, ‘Mylan, come here. Take a deep breath.’ But I appreciate that edge. I really do.”

There was always plenty to like about Graham as a recruit, and as he continually gains a better handle of the offense, his skill set is starting to take hold more and more.

“Yeah, he definitely is very fluid about the way he moves,” senior receiver Emeka Egbuka said. “We see it in his routes and his releases. When all the wide receivers are in the film room and he’s getting crafty, he’s doing all this body movement stuff, it’s like, ‘Okay,’ we could see he’s got a little something to him. So it’s just about bringing him along. He just got here. It’s his first year here, kind of building along. There’s steps you’ve got to take, but he’s definitely trending in the right direction.”

Egbuka was himself a five-star wide receiver prospect, but he enrolled early, so he got to experience a full offseason at Ohio State before playing in a game. Graham’s experience right now is more along the lines of sophomore teammate Brandon Inniss, who himself was a former five-star receiver recruit who also happened to enroll in June.

Inniss caught just one pass last year, though it did go 58 yards for a touchdown. He was heavily involved in special teams and is expected to have a sizable role in this year’s offense. With his freshman year behind him, Inniss has had plenty of advice for Graham.

“I just told him the playbook’s the first thing,” Inniss said. “The playbook’s the hardest thing. Just stay in your playbook. He’s doing very good right now. All the progression he’s made since he first got here, he’s increasing every day. I mean, his daily habits are just getting better and better.”

Where has Inniss seen that progression show the most?

“I would say his route running,” Inniss said. “His route running is very good for a young guy. I like his releases a lot. Yesterday he had a very good route, actually. I was pretty surprised by it.”

With Ohio State’s depth at receiver, featuring Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith, Brandon Inniss, and older players like Jayden Ballard, Bryson Rodgers, and Kojo Antwi, Graham should have time to to find his way.

But he’s doing what he can right now to make his process as productive as possible.

“He’s jumping in and trying to take reps. He’s really doing a good job,” Hartline said. “I think right now he’s just chasing and building a body of work to justify where he’s at, right? That’s the hardest part about coming in in June. What body of work have you really developed or proven to your peers or your coaches to really justify what you want to accomplish, right? You guys know that. So that’s what he’s chasing right now. He’s trying to stack days and show and develop his identity as a football player here at Ohio State.”