Ohio State’s been known for blunt cornerbacks in recent years, most notably the straight-shooting, confident Denzel Burke.
Jermaine Mathews Jr. is another of those. When he heaps praise on a teammate, it’s especially worth paying attention to. And when asked which wide receiver isn’t being talked about enough in spring practice, Mathews pointed to a redshirt freshman seldom seen in 2024.
“I’ve been seeing a lot of Mylan Graham,” Mathews said. “I like Mylan Graham a lot. He’s just smooth, very smooth. He’s a good player. He’s a great player.”
Graham, a five-star prospect, enters his second season making up for lost ground as a 2024 summer enrollee. Still, he’s starting to surge as Ohio State seeks to build depth behind Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss in 2025.
“I feel way more confident,” Graham said. “I feel like when I first got here, throughout the fall camp and summer, stuff was being rushed, just going one day at a time. But I feel like now, through the spring, everything has slowed down.”
There was a time not that long ago when the majority of a given Ohio State recruiting class would enroll during the summer. That is no longer the case in modern-day college football.
Fifteen of the 20 players the Buckeyes signed in Graham’s 2024 recruiting class were midyear enrollees and 21 of 26 signees in the recruiting class of 2025 also enrolled midyear. At a school that signs as many elite prospects as Ohio State, it’s important for a player’s early career prospects that he gets to campus in the winter.
“To miss that can really have a ripple effect,” offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline said on March 24. “Not that we can't make up for it and make it work, but that's still a lot of work that you haven't done, both individually and your teammates haven't seen that. So that's really important, I feel like.”
Graham played just 16 snaps across four games in 2024 and hasn’t yet logged his first career reception. Unlike Smith, Tate and Inniss, who got fantastic skill development facing elite competition in South Florida during their high school careers, Graham entered as a much less battle-tested prospect out of New Haven, Indiana.
“It was a pretty big shock,” Graham said of coming to Ohio State. “The adjustment from high school to college, especially within that six-month window – I had been offseason working out – but just coming here, adjusting to college, the speed, tempo, everything. It was a pretty big shock.”
Graham noted Tuesday that it took until winter for him to realize how behind he was by not getting the spring practice sessions his fellow wide receivers did. But that fueled him to play catch-up in this year’s winter workouts and spring practice. In that timeframe, he said, he stopped feeling like a young guy.
Hartline has taken notice.
“He's doing a really good job building his body up,” Hartline said. “He's bigger, he's stronger. Culturally, he does a great job. I don't think he's ever late. He's doing a good job just continuing to grow on the field. And he's putting a good foot forward so far this spring.”
Graham has been the first player off Ohio State’s bench at outside receiver this spring while redshirt sophomore Bryson Rodgers has been first in at the slot receiver position, at least in practices open to the Ohio State media. With speed being one of his greatest traits, he could also get involved in the return game and has been seen taking reps on punt return.
“Just explosiveness,” Graham said of what he’ll bring to the team. “Whatever I can honestly bring to the team, whether it's offense, special teams, just energy, however I can help the senior group. I know my skill set, what I can provide.”
Ohio State career receptions leader, national champion and potential first-round NFL draft pick Emeka Egbuka has been a big mentor for Graham as he continues acclimating to the college game, too.
“Just understanding how the games go, how the college players (operate), the tempo, how fast it is,” Graham said. “I’m learning from Emeka (Egbuka). I feel like Emeka was a pretty solid pro, even when he was here last year. And I learned a lot from him.”
If things really start clicking for Graham in year two, he'll provide Ohio State a fast, well-rounded weapon in its next wave of receivers.
