Mason Graham shares 'wise words' to Michigan football team in after-practice speech

After practices, the Michigan Wolverines football team gathers around head coach Jim Harbaugh for “wise words.” The ninth-year head man calls up a player, coach or guest to address the team. On Monday, Harbaugh selected sophomore defensive tackle Mason Graham to share. But first, he got a few jokes in at Graham’s expense. Graham said the two have a “pretty cool” relationship.

“He brought me up for some ‘wise words’ yesterday and we were having a good time, so it’s pretty cool,” Graham said. “I always just talk to him here and there. He’s obviously a good guy to talk to. He’s funny, he can make you laugh; he’s entertaining. Really engaging. It’s always fun to talk to him.

“Everyone was laughing because he was making jokes about me, how I’m always smiling and stuff.”

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Graham was a freshman phenom on Michigan’s 2022 Big Ten championship winning team, racking up 27 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 1 pass breakup and 1 quarterback hurry. He’s 15-1 as a college player and knows what it takes to win, now a starter on a team seeking to hang more banners inside Schembechler Hall’s Glick Fieldhouse.

“I was just talking about how this is our last week of preseason play,” Graham said of his words to the team as Michigan heads into a Saturday night clash with Bowling Green. “We’re going to have bigger and bigger games as we go into Big Ten games. Let’s just keep on grinding every day. We have the best team in the country, so let’s take advantage of it.”

Last offseason, before Graham had ever taken a game snap in a winged helmet, Harbaugh referred to him and classmate Kenneth Grant, also an interior defensive lineman, as “gifts from the football gods.”

“It’s obviously a compliment to be called that, me and KG,” Graham stated. “We do a lot of work together, so it’s pretty cool.

Through two games, wins over East Carolina and UNLV, Graham currently ranks fourth on the Michigan team with 8 tackles, adding 1.5 stops for loss and a half-sack. Grant has upped his game, though, too, after serving as a reserve last season. He’s broken out to the tune of 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, 1 pass breakup (on a third down versus UNLV) and 1 quarterback hurry. The rest of the world is finally starting to see the Grant that his teammates know well.

“He’s definitely grown a lot, but I feel like everyone in the building has always seen what he could be and what he does on a daily basis,” Graham said of his classmate. “Especially me — I’m one of his closest friends. We live together, so I’ve always seen him balling out like that, but it’s all coming to the light for all the fans and everyone else that isn’t in the building every day.”

At 6-3, 339 pounds, Grant has been a load for opposing offensive lines to handle so far.

“He’s just big, athletic,” his Michigan teammate said. “So, if you try to go power on him, he can make a move on you. He just has all the tools to be a great player.”

Mason Graham on his forced fumble

On a third-quarter run to Graham’s left in the win over UNLV, the Michigan defensive tackle pursued the ball laid a hit and jarred the ball out without even knowing it. He stood up, thinking he had missed the tackle, before realizing the UNLV ball carrier fumbled. The Rebels wound up recovering for a loss of 11 yards.

In a way, Graham not realizing he had forced a fumble is a testament to one of Michigan’s biggest areas of focus this past offseason: getting the ball loose. The Wolverines ranked dead last nationally with only 2 forced fumbles (there were other fumbles by opponents but U-M wasn’t credited with forcing those).

“One of our pillars in our defense is ball disruption, so every day in practice we look forward to creating those opportunities so that happens in the game,” Graham explained. “But on that specific play, I really wasn’t trying to do that, but it just happens. I always have that thought in my mind, so it just happens after all the practice.”

Graham explained how Michigan actually goes about emphasizing ball disruption in practice.

“Just getting punches on the ball when the ball carrier is running through, just the different angles, the different scenarios you can be in that can force a fumble,” he said. “We do a lot of stuff like that in practice.”

The Michigan defense has been lights out through two weeks. The Wolverines rank 13th nationally by allowing just 232 yards per game, and the starters haven’t allowed any points.

“I feel like we keep on just building,” Graham said of the goal now. “Obviously, we’re going to get into bigger and bigger games as the season goes on, so we just have to keep on getting better every week. Something that we preach is that you can’t be 3-0 without being 2-0, so that’s a big thing for us.”

Wise words.