Michigan football schedule for 2024 season
A look at the defending Big Ten and national champion Michigan Wolverines schedule for the 2024 football season.
The sun had just set to the west, behind the San Gabriel Mountains, in Pasadena, California, but it was to the east where Michigan football had two mountains of its own, each with a left hand planted in the ground and a gaze locked straight ahead.
Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant had dreamed of this moment before. Exactly this moment: The Rose Bowl. Overtime. Fourth-and-goal.
A stop and their Wolverines would be playing for the program’s first national championship in a quarter-century. Otherwise? Team 144’s unbeaten season would disappear into the dark, for the third straight year.
The snap went low, and Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was forced to take the ball up the middle, directly into a sea of maize-and-blue jerseys. In the middle of the chaos, Grant was double-teamed, and Graham was handed off by a pair of blockers. But the duo stood tall as they combined to form a wall against three Crimson Tide linemen, allowing their teammates to stop Milroe for a loss.
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“He was the biggest problem, so we knew when it was down and dirty they were going to go to him with the ball,” Graham recalled a few months later. “We had a good play call for it and stood strong, like we always do.”
They stood strong the following week, too, in the College Football Playoff championship game against Washington — Grant came away with two tackles, a deflected pass and Michigan’s lone sack, while Graham finished with three tackles — as the Wolverines locked up their first national title since 1997 and set off a week-long party in Ann Arbor.
It also set off an offseason full of challenges for the All-American duo.
And yet …
Graham and Grant arrived at Michigan knowing exactly what they wanted. It turned out, even after they achieved it, they weren’t done.
And so the duo is back in Ann Arbor for another season and, perhaps, another perfect moment, and another unbeaten season.
‘You kinda gotta withstand the storm’
As quickly as their moment in the spotlight arrived in January, it nearly vanished, as then-coach Jim Harbaugh’s departure for the NFL decimated Michigan’s defensive staff and left the duo pondering their own immediate futures.
“After all the coaching changes and everything happened, nobody really knew what was going on,” Graham said. “So obviously I thought about (entering the transfer portal) and knew people would want to take me or (Grant) or whatever it was coming off the year we had.
“There always were thoughts running through my head, but obviously I made my decision this is where I want to be. It’s about the guys, everybody wanted to stay together so we stayed together. That’s really all it was.”
Grant’s situation wasn’t much different, as he was contacted by interested programs “just about every day.”
Which teams? The All-Big Ten tackle wouldn’t say, but explained, with a wry smile, that the list was longer than just one or two schools, noting that it would be easier to list those he didn’t hear from.
“But it is what it is. It’s the offseason, it’s the way college football is now. You kinda gotta withstand the storm of that and just focus on, not what other people are saying, but what you want and what you want in your life.”
And yet …
Just as they had against Alabama in the CFP semifinal, the duo stuck together, continuing their story that started well before they stepped on the field at the Big House.
‘I think you’ve got him signed up for the wrong sport’
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It was the fall of 2008 when a 4-year-old Graham initially got into organized sports in Southern California.
Like many kids, soccer was up first. He was immediately one of the more talented players.
And yet …
There was a problem: Graham didn’t realize he was also the largest, resulting in more than a few times in which opponents — or even teammates — would just end up on the ground thanks to his bull-in-a-china-shop pursuit of the ball.
“He was plowing people over, knocking the air out of them just thinking it was the greatest thing in the world,” his mother, Kimberly, told the Free Press. “I remember after a couple games his coach came up to us and said, ‘I think you’ve got him signed up for the wrong sport.’ ”
A year later, the bulldozing pre-schooler began football and from that point on, it was a mainstay, albeit not the only sport he played. The family prioritized fun over competition, with Graham trying sport after sport — rugby, basketball, wrestling.
“In our household, you’re not going to just sit at home,” Graham’s father, Allen, explained. “You’ve got to be doing something, so make sure you’re doing what you like.”
Each sport played a role in Graham’s development, but in the end, he always came back to football, where he began his career as a linebacker for the Santa Margarita Titans and Eagles.
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His biggest challenge? Playing under the Pop Warner weight limits.
As early as elementary school, the future U-M lineman was playing up one grade, sometimes two. And still, making weight often came down to the wire.
“He’d always have to cut weight a few days before the game,” his father said with a laugh. “He’d eat nothing for a day or two prior to the games … then as soon as he finished his weigh-in, we’d be waiting there to stuff a couple breakfast burritos down his throat before he played.”
By the time he reached high school, there were no longer size restrictions; the 14-year-old who stood 6 feet 1 and 215 pounds felt ready to make his mark.
However, there was one more problem: Freshmen aren’t allowed to play varsity at Servite High School in Anaheim, California. The Friars competed in California’s Trinity League — considered one of the toughest conferences in America, littered with powerhouses such as Mater Dei, St. John Bosco and Orange Lutheran.
But that was just a year’s delay. Graham became a starter for Servite as a sophmore and quickly earned his first Division I offer, from Fresno State. The Bulldogs were led by future Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer, but Graham’s primary recruiter was Courtney Morgan — a U-M offensive lineman from 1999-2003.
Morgan was trying to keep Graham in California, but after the 2020 season was derailed by the coronavirus pandemic, he returned to Ann Arbor, with the Wolverines, and knew exactly who one of his primary targets would be.
By Graham’s junior season, in spring 2021, he was starting to pull in offers from Pac-12 schools. Arizona had a strong pull, landing four of his teammates — tight end Keyan Burnett, quarterback Noah Fifita (now a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate), wideout Tetairoa McMillan (who enters this season as a potential top-10 NFL draft pick) and linebacker Jacob Manu (who led the Pac-12 in tackles last year).
Graham’s senior year, when he racked up six sacks in just three weeks, brought offers flooding in from around the country: Clemson, Oklahoma, Oregon, USC and, of course, Michigan, led by Morgan.
Graham’s official visit to Ann Arbor came on the weekend of Sept. 11, 2021, as the Wolverines hosted Washington under the lights at the Big House.
Another prospective tackle, who stood even larger than Graham, attended that weekend, too.
Graham and Grant sat on the bus with one another as they toured the facilities and attended Michigan’s 31-10 win.
“That was basically it,” Graham’s father recalled. “I remember, he was set after that.”
Birth certificate ‘a requirement’
She said it with love in her voice, but Ewana Chatman remembers when she wondered if her child was a bit different from others.
She would get home after a day of work in Merrillville, Indiana, and enter the living room to her 6-year-old son watching replays of decades-old football games on NFL Network.
“I’d find him watching these old games and I thought, ‘This kid is kind of weird,’ ” Chatman said. “Now I understand, he was studying the game at a young age.”
Grant hadn’t played the game, but he was already infatuated.
And yet …
Grant might not have gotten started, if not for his childhood best friend, Caleb Dulla, and his father, Jon.
They were neighbors with Chatman, who was going through a divorce and working two jobs. One day, Jon came to Chatman and, in her words, “begged” her to let Grant play football.
“I wasn’t into football then, and also I didn’t have the time or a way to take him to practice or the games,” Chatman recalled. “But (Dulla) saw something in Kenneth and said, ‘I’ll make sure he gets there, I have to pass you on my way to get Caleb there.’.
“From there, it’s history.”
Not that it was simple. For as much as Graham went through to make weight, Grant’s challenge was even greater.
He joined the Crowne Pointe Bulldogs, in a youth league broken into three sizes: little, medium and big — the largest group featured kids aged 11-13 and a weight limit of 250 pounds.
Few players were anywhere near that, but when a pre-teen Grant showed up north of 225 pounds, there were questions.
“I’d be in the stands and other parents were like, ‘What kid is that, that’s a grown man,’ ” Chatman said with a laugh. “Bringing (his birth certificate) was a requirement, every game.”
Grant was always one of the biggest kids in his grade; Chatman remembers when he was 2 and her father would give her grief about making two full hot dogs for his lunch.
There were also the days in middle school when she would want to send him to summer school “just so he could eat the school’s breakfast and lunch.”
Soon enough, for parents whose kids were lined up against Grant, it began to feel like he was in multiple places at once. And he was, sort of.
His youth football league, covering 23 communities in Northwest Indiana, had multiple teams playing in one area on any given Saturday. While there was a limit on the snaps per day for a player, there was no rule requiring a player had to stay on one team the entire day.
As Chatman recalled, there were dozens of Saturdays when Grant would begin the afternoon with one team, help them get a large enough lead and then run over to an adjacent field, change jerseys and help another squad claw its way back into a game.
That was the beginning of Grant becoming a one-man wrecking crew.
Coaches from the nearby Chicago area contacted Chatman, trying to lure him to a powerhouse program with college connections.
“I’d never done this: My thought was, if he’s as good as everybody tells me he is, the coaches will find him,” Chatman said. “Even in Merrillville.”
In the end, she was right.
As a freshman, he started both ways for Merrillville High, made the basketball team and also lettered in track & field. (He’s still top-10 at the school in the shotput.)
By summer 2020, he had offers from Cincinnati and Purdue. By spring 2021, when football came back, his list of offers exploded.
Even as a three-star recruit, per 247 Sports’ composite rankings, his raw talent was still enough to secure offers from Arizona State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Wisconsin and, of course, Michigan.
Chatman remembers when Grant was weighing his options and she was the primary contact. U-M’s recruiting duo of Morgan and Shaun Nua were in constant communication. But it was a phone call from Harbaugh that she — and U-M coaches — still laugh about.
“One day I’m on a Zoom meeting with my VP, I see the number come up and it says ‘click the camera to answer’ — it’s Harbaugh and I tell him, ‘I’m in my meeting, I have a job to do, you can contact me during these hours,’ ” Chatman said. “Then he said, ‘I’ll be sure to contact you after 6,’ and he said (the coaches) were all dying laughing.”
Grant visited Ohio State first, before finally making the trek to Ann Arbor for a September game against Washington, where he met his future roommate.
‘I’ll take the athleticism, too’
It may go down as the most important two weeks in U-M football modern recruiting history.
Five days after Graham watched the Wolverines hammer the Huskies in front of 111,000 fans, he pledged to join U-M. Twelve days after that, Grant made the same decision.
Graham enrolled early, in January 2022; Grant didn’t arrive in Ann Arbor until June.
A month later, Harbaugh was asked about incoming freshman at Big Ten media days in Indianapolis; he delivered a cryptic answer that would soon prove prescient.
“I got one (or two) I think is just an absolute, absolute gift from the football gods,” Harbaugh said. “Who? I’m gonna write it down on a piece of paper here. Seal it, just see if I’m not right.”
Soon enough, it was clear who Harbaugh had been referring to, as a pair of 18-year-olds made an immediate impact. Graham, who played in all 14 games and started multiple times, recorded 27 tackles, 2½ sacks, one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry en route to being named a Freshman All-American by Pro Football Focus. Grant had only eight tackles in 13 games but carved out a role for himself behind future first-round NFL draft pick selection Mazi Smith.
But Michigan’s 2022 season ended with its second consecutive CFP semifinal loss, an upset by TCU.
It remains the toughest loss of their lives.
And yet …
Several key contributors from the team vowed to return in 2023 with, as Graham said, “business to finish.”
Motivated by seeing teammates postpone their NFL dreams, Graham and Grant took it upon themselves to set the tone for what became the best defense in America.
Graham, a first-team All-America selection, recorded 36 tackles — including 7½ for loss — three sacks, three quarterback hurries, one pass breakup, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery, all despite missing a pair of games with a broken hand.
The performance inspired some jealousy over skills from his roommate.
“His twitchiness or his IQ,” Grant said of what he’d want to steal from Graham’s game, noting how he called out plays as opponents got set. “Film, in-game, football knowledge. His play recognition. It’s crazy.”
Grant, meanwhile, emerged as a second-team All-Big Ten pick, with 29 tackles (five for loss), 3½ sacks, six quarterback hurries, five pass breakups, an interception and a fumble recovery.
Graham has his jealousies, too.
“I mean, for sure his size,” Graham joked. “But I’ll take his athleticism, too.”
Certainly, the duo is dominant because each player is a force in his own right, but they also thrive on the chemistry and connection they’ve built together. The tackles lived together their first two years in Ann Arbor and roomed together on team road trips.
All that time together has brought countless nights watching YouTube after long days of conditioning and, more recently, hours of video games — College Football 25 is now a staple — to bond them. They’ve even been so antsy at night — on more than one occasion — that they had to go over to Al Glick Fieldhouse, just to go get some work in.
“We literally just did that the other week,” Graham said in late July. “Me, Josiah (Stewart), TJ (Guy), Derrick (Moore) … all the stuff is on the side of the field in the fieldhouse, so whatever we want to use, we just bring it out.”
The bond has brought them to the point that, recently, the duo told Big Ten Network they’re now going by “Peanut Butter” and “Jelly” — two tastes made better when combined.
“It helps us a lot,” Graham said of lining up together. “If we’re at another school by ourselves, we’d probably be getting double- or triple-teams. But playing next to each other, they can’t double-team one of us. I mean, they can, but they’re going to have to switch off at some point.”
‘It’s our responsibility now’
Grant and Graham are merely entering their junior seasons, but with first-round NFL draft grades already, they’re widely expected to enter the 2025 draft.
Both already have hired agents; Graham had to leave an interview with the Free Press a couple minutes early to meet with his financial advisor on time. They’re thinking about their future to be sure, but that doesn’t mean they have one foot out the door.
On the contrary, both players focused in the offseason on reshaping their bodies for the upcoming season, knowing the Wolverines will have less depth on the line in 2024. Grant weighed 351 pounds in the middle of the summer and said he planned on playing at 330. Graham was at 320 but will be closer to 310 when the season kicks off Saturday vs. Fresno State.
“We’ve got all the talent in the world, it’s just a new team,” Grant said. “New chemistry, new feelings, new coaches and everything, we just have to adapt to the small things for the bigger scheme to come out.”
The summer was about balancing rest and work, though.
Graham spent May in Oahu, Hawaii, on the north shore — where his parents and siblings moved upon his high school graduation. There, he flashed back to his high school days in Southern California: afternoons of body surfing at the beach.
“He will be in the water for hours and hours,” his mother said with a chuckle. “And just not come out.”
Grant, meanwhile, returned home to Indiana, but with his mind already made up about staying in Ann Arbor, he lined up training sessions in Florida with Javon Gopie, a pass-rushing expert known as “the sack sensei.”
“His main thing for him was to be with his teammates and friends at Michigan,” Graham’s father said. “They built something there, obviously the national championship; we’re a little biased, but we think he was part of the best team in Michigan history.
“It’s more than that for him and more than that for us. He wanted to leave a legacy at Michigan. That was basically it, he never even thought twice about it.”
Grant’s summer highlight was going to the ESPYs in Los Angeles with his teammates. In his time off, he loves to fish and has a group chat with teammates such as Myles Hinton, Kody Jones and Amorion Walker, who all like to go together after practice.
As far as the work, he wasn’t counting calories over the summer, but he made sure he kept to “a strict diet” learned from team nutritionist Abigail O’Connor.
Both are poised for monster years, with preseason All-America nots and an appearance by Grant on The Athletic’s “Freaks List.”
And yet …
Michigan hasn’t gotten the same respect, coming in No. 8 in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll, No. 9 in the Associated Press media poll and an over/under win total of 8½ from Vegas sportsbooks.
The linemen have heard all about that.
“It’s our responsibility now,” Grant said. “Those leaders that were placed in front of us and got us where we were, now we have to be those leaders and do all the things they did to get to where we want to get to, another national championship run.”
It’s not all on Graham and Grant. An offense that features 10 new starters, plus a new head coach, three new coordinators and a new strength coach all coming together at once isn’t exactly easy.
And yet …
It helps when there’s 650 pounds of muscle, with the potential to be one of the best defensive tackle pairings in college football history, anchoring the defensive line.
But the big fellas don’t like to talk about that. They don’t like to look at mock drafts too much, either (despite getting them from friends and teammates, whenever they pop up).
For now, it’s “Peanut Butter and Jelly” time in Ann Arbor.
“Sometimes we don’t even need to say stuff,” Grant said. “We already know.”
For openers: Bulldogs
Matchup: Michigan (15-0 in 2023) vs. Fresno State (9-4 in 2023), season opener.
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 31; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.
TV/radio: NBC; WXYT-FM (97.1).
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Publish date : 2024-08-25 00:06:00
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