Mason Graham knows a little something about playing football in both Southern California and in the state of Michigan.
Graham was a four-star recruit from Anaheim (Calif.) Servite, just 28 miles from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where Michigan’s next opponent, USC, plays their home games. But this week, the Trojans will come play in Graham’s adopted home, and it’s a matchup he’s very much looking forward to.
“It’s pretty cool,” Graham said. “USC is a historic program a little different than coming from the West Coast to the Midwest. I know it was different for me, so it’s gonna be different for those guys as well. But I played against some of the guys growing up, familiar with their program, and it’s gonna be a good game, just trying to be 1-0.”
The Michigan defensive front hasn’t been quite as advertised this year, looking dominant in Week 1 but struggling against Texas in Week 2 and being pretty good in Week 3, but without much stats to make fans ooh and aah. The USC offensive line isn’t on the same level as that of the Longhorns, but it is a good group, and one that Graham knows will be tough to penetrate.
“Yeah, I feel like they work well together,” Graham said. “Obviously a great group. Their offense goes a lot with how they do. They have a lot of playmakers on their side of the ball, and obviously we need to do a good job containing that and playing Michigan defense and executing our pillars.”
While USC is also working in a new quarterback, it’s been a much more seamless transition for the Trojans compared to that of the Wolverines.
Michigan will be starting Alex Orji for the first time but Miller Moss will be starting in his third game, his second this season. Taking over for former Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, Moss has eclipsed more than 300 in his first start of the season — a neutral site game against LSU — picking up where he left off in the bowl game against Louisville a year ago.
Graham says that the biggest thing for Moss is that he doesn’t turn the ball over (he’s thrown one interception compared to 11 touchdowns in his college career) but it will be incumbent on Michigan to contain the run game and force Moss to beat the Wolverines passing the ball.
“I just feel like he’s doing a good job, protecting the football, doing good things, playing within their offense, getting the ball to playmakers, letting them make plays,” Graham said. “And just feel like they’ve been able to run the ball consistently. So I feel like that’s something where we need to stop them and make them throw the ball and make them beat us throwing the ball.”
Michigan and USC will kick off at 3:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday with the game being nationally broadcast on CBS.