Mason Graham’s path to Michigan, outlook for 2022

Mason Graham is coming to Ann Arbor all the way from sunny California, as he spent the last four years playing high school football and wrestling at Servite High School in Anaheim.

After losing a lot of production on the Wolverines’ stacked defensive line from a year ago, adding young talent is crucial, and that’s what the addition of Graham does for Michigan.

In high school, Graham and his football team had plenty of success. During Graham’s senior season, Servite reached double-digit wins and found themselves playing in the CIF Southern Section championship. They finished with a top 10 MaxPreps ranking.

With 60 tackles, 22 for loss and 14 sacks, it was an individually successful season for Graham as well.

Going into his recruitment, Graham was given a four-star rating from 247Sports and was ranked as the 347th-best player in the nation, 44th best defensive lineman and the 28th-best player in California.

With high ratings and impressive play, Graham earned offers from big Pac-12 schools near him like Oregon, USC and Arizona State. Graham also had an offer from Boise State and was committed to play for the Broncos before deciding the best fit for him would be in Ann Arbor with the Michigan Wolverines.

It’s rare for a freshman to join a team that’s coming off a conference championship and earn a lot of playing time his first year in college. But Graham made a name for himself during the spring game and has been raved about as one of the more impressive true freshmen on the team this season. It shouldn’t shock if he earns a decent amount of playing time in year one, but we should temper expectations for him a little bit until he actually plays in a meaningful game.