Mylan Graham had a quiet first year at Ohio State, but a full offseason in Columbus this spring and summer could allow him to make much more noise in his second year as a Buckeye.
While fellow five-star freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith immediately became one of college football’s biggest stars, Graham played only sparingly in 2024, receiving no targets on just 16 snaps. But Ohio State never expected Graham to play a huge role last season.
Unlike Smith, who had a full offseason at Ohio State last year, Graham didn’t arrive in Columbus until summer. That left Graham playing catch-up for most of his freshman season.
“The other freshmen who got here in the spring, they were already pretty adjusted to it pretty quickly. But it's been pretty hard for me just getting adjusted to the playbook, the speed and everything, the tempo of college football,” Graham told Eleven Warriors at Ohio State’s media day before the Rose Bowl. “When you get to college, you have to be able to read defenses, pre-snap, post-snap and all that. So it's definitely something I had to get used to.”
By the end of the year, however, Graham felt like he had improved significantly from when he arrived at Ohio State.
“I feel like I've gotten way better,” Graham said. “Especially toward the end part of the season, when the games started kicking in more, I feel like I've gotten way better.”
That gives Graham confidence that he can play a much bigger role as a redshirt freshman in 2025.
“I definitely feel like I'll be one of our top receivers going into next year, and I'll be able to create a bigger role for our offense going into next year,” Graham said. “I feel pretty confident about that.”
There’s no question that Graham has the talent to be an impact player for the Buckeyes. Ranked as the No. 7 receiver and No. 33 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, Graham is a fluid route runner with excellent speed and shiftiness. Now that Graham has a full offseason at Ohio State to continue developing both physically and mentally, offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline says he’s already making major strides.
“He’s doing a great job. He's growing at an exponential rate,” Hartline said last week. “He's getting stronger. He's getting bigger. He's got weight added. I always explain to him, you don't realize how much you've missed when you come in in June vs. a midyear. It's massively different. Not saying you can't overcome it, some do; at the end of the season, some have. But I think that's probably reliant on the room.
“Chris Olave had an opportunity late in the season (as a summer enrollee in 2018) to kind of make an impact, but it's very, very rare. And now, he's going through the winter workout, his growth, everything he's done, he's like, ‘Hey, Coach Hart, I know what you're talking about now when you miss that section of winter workouts.’ So that being said, it makes you laugh. But he's doing a great job. I have high expectations for him through spring. And I don't see that changing.”
Even as a freshman who was still getting up to speed, Graham made an impression on his veteran teammates. When former Ohio State cornerback Denzel Burke was asked at the NFL Scouting Combine which returning wide receivers he expected to have big years in 2025, Burke listed Graham alongside Smith and Carnell Tate.
“He could be a great player,” Burke said. “Me and him be going at it a little bit in practice, but that's just me out of love, just trying to continue to get him better. And he's quick, good hands, good catch radius, good releases. Really excited for him and his future.”
“I have high expectations for him through spring. And I don't see that changing.”– Brian Hartline on Mylan Graham
Graham seemingly enters this spring in a similar position to that which Brandon Inniss was in last year after Inniss was a summer enrollee before his freshman year in 2023. Inniss ultimately emerged as Ohio State’s No. 4 receiver last season behind Smith, Tate and Emeka Egbuka, but didn’t see as much playing time as was expected entering the year and caught just 14 passes for 176 yards and one touchdown.
With Inniss expected to replace Egbuka as Ohio State’s starting slot receiver alongside Smith and Tate this year, the question is whether Graham – who also faces competition from Bryson Rodgers to be Ohio State’s No. 4 receiver – can earn his way into more regular playing time than any of OSU’s backup receivers got a year ago. To do that, Graham will need to prove he’s worthy of taking snaps away from Inniss, Tate and/or Smith.
That said, Graham loves being part of a unit where he knows he’s competing against some of the best receivers in the country, which is pushing him to raise his game to their level.
“Our room, we're full of competitors, we're all good. We could all be ones at any school in the country, I'd say,” Graham said. “But yeah, it's been pretty fun competing with those guys every day.”
Seeing what Smith did as a freshman has given Graham a high bar to compare himself to, and he acknowledged that isn’t always easy. But Graham is proud of Smith for what he accomplished last year.
“Every day I battle, just seeing what he is doing, trying to compare myself to that, it's pretty hard,” Graham said. “I give props to him, he's doing a great job.”
The expectations that come with being a five-star wide receiver recruit at Ohio State are as high as they’ve ever been thanks to Smith and other recent stars like Egbuka, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Garrett Wilson who made good on their recruiting pedigrees by becoming national stars. Graham still has a long way to go to reach those heights, but he’s confident about what he has the potential to become in his first full offseason as a Buckeye.
“I feel very confident about it,” Graham said. “With me having a full winter, spring, summer, fall camp going into next year, I feel like I'll have a lot more confidence.”
